Overview

"""A double helix of a memoir that intertwines a life in the rock 'n' roll hothouse of late 70s New York with a deeply personal account of a tragic sibling, Brilliant Disguise is a moving portrait of innocence and experience."" -Joe Hagan, author of Sticky Fingers: The Life & Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine ""Brilliant Disguise does what every good memoir should: it shows how our personal journeys help shape the world around us while that world, in turn, helps shape the direction of our lives. The story-set against the fascinating soundscape of New York's rock music scene in the 1970s-is honest and profound."" -Pam Fessler, former national correspondent for NPR and author of Carville's Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice. After their nuclear family exploded into a vaporous mushroom cloud, the two siblings could only duck and cover. The young Susan basked in her brother Robert's glow. Teachers singled her out because, certainly, the little sister would excel too. But how could she ever reach their expectations? Instead, she rebelled, chose the wrong men, drank and took drugs. Susan talked her way into a job at Rolling Stone magazine in 1976. Three years later, as an organizer of five nights of No Nukes concerts at Madison Square Garden with Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, and many others, she got snared in the rock politics scramble and her brother saved her. Many years later, though, she could not save him. Only in retrospect can Susan piece together how Robert's too-brief life was a brilliant disguise. Traumatized by their childhood experience, he buried his pain behind an outsized personality. On his twelfth wedding anniversary in 1990, he ended his life. Brilliant Disguise winds together Susan's rock-and-roll odyssey with an exploration of Robert's life, teasing out clues as to why the past so dangerously swamped him."

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"""A double helix of a memoir that intertwines a life in the rock 'n' roll hothouse of late 70s New York with a deeply personal account of a tragic sibling, Brilliant Disguise is a moving portrait of innocence and experience."" -Joe Hagan, author of Sticky Fingers: The Life & Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine ""Brilliant Disguise recounts Susan's efforts to navigate two male-dominated cultures of the late 1970s-Rolling Stone magazine and music promotion. But her lucid, relatable account also probes the formidable private challenges of family crisis, complex relationships, and single motherhood. Although her title quotes a classic Springsteen lyric, let there be no doubt: Susan Kellam is the real thing."" -Peter Richardson, author of Savage Journey: Hunter S. Thompson and The Weird Road to Gonzo ""More than a rock 'n' roll memoir, Brilliant Disguise is a heartfelt family saga, written with wit, verve, and compassion by the woman who lived it."" -Jayne Loader, codirector of the cult classic film, The Atomic Cafe ""A book about the bonds of family, which never really loosen. Susan's story will be of great interest to anyone who ever fought the political, sexual, and familial wars."" -Robert Ward, author of the award-winning novel Red Baker ""Brilliant Disguise does what every good memoir should: it shows how our personal journeys help shape the world around us while that world, in turn, helps shape the direction of our lives. The story-set against the fascinating soundscape of New York's rock music scene in the 1970s-is honest and profound."" -Pam Fessler, former national correspondent for NPR and author of Carville's Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice. ""Susan captures the confusion, grunge, and elation of coming of age in New York City in the 1970s while also exploring what led to her brother taking his life. The result is a heady mix of rock 'n' roll, the growth of a political movement, and an understanding of child trauma."" -Charles Light, filmmaker, Lovejoy's Nuclear War and The Last Resort"

Author Information

Susan Kellam started her career at Rolling Stone magazine when typewriters were still being flung across offices. Eventually leaving the rock-and-roll world for straight journalism, her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Washingtonian magazine, Congressional Quarterly, the Baltimore Sun, and numerous other places. She finished her full-time career as senior communications expert on domestic policy at the Brookings Institution. The Obama administration tapped her to edit the Economic Report of the President, as did the Biden administration. Susan was a contributing writer on the 2021 book, How Ten Global Cities Take on Homelessness. She lives on a salt-water farm in Maine with two rambunctious dogs.

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