When Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) first met Ruth Kligman, he was 44, married to the artist Lee Krasner, an alcoholic, and a celebrated Abstract Expressionist painter who privately considered himself a phony, Kligman was in her early twenties and painting at night school. They were together for five passionate and miserable months. Their affair ended abruptly when Pollock, driving like a madman, lost control of his car and died. Kligman was gravely injured. It took her 16 years following the tragedy to compose this fascinating memoir.