Synopses & Reviews
Meet the denizens of New York City: artists, prostitutes, saints, and seers. All are aspiring toward either fame or oblivion, and hoping for love and acceptance. Instead they find high rents, faithless partners, and dead-end careers. But between the disappointments come snatches of self-awareness, and a strange beauty in their encounters with one another.
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New York Deadpan wit and drop-dead style...Janowitz is a fearless writer.
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New York Newsday Jane Austen goes punk....Welcome to bohemia, circa now.
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Andy Warhol GREAT! SIZZLING! WOW!
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Vogue Yearning for transcendent love, yet mired in the petulant, niggardly, supremely anti-romantic world of contemporary New York City...In Tama Janowitz's short stories, economics and romance make strange (and funny) bedfellows.
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The Washington Post Sparkling and zippy, from a loft warming to the cast party for a zombie movie...FUNNY, REFLECTIVE...WONDERFULLY SHARP.
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Andy WarholGREAT! SIZZLING! WOW!
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San Francisco Chronicle A TRUE ORIGINAL with an eye for quirky detail... Janowitz's lean, satirical vignettes put her in the stylistic company of Fran Lebowitz and Jay McInerney.
About the Author
Tama Janowitz vaulted to literary stardom with the bestselling Slaves of New York, becoming "the Most Talked About Writer of the Year" (Women's Wear Daily). Her stories have appeared in such diverse magazines as The New Yorker, Paris Review, Spin, Bomb, and Interview. She is also the author of the outrageous novels A Cannibal in Manhattan and The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group, available from Washington Square Press, and an earlier novel, American Dad. She lives in New York City.
Table of Contents
ContentsModern Saint #271
The Slaves in New York
Engagements
You and the Boss
Life in the Pre-Cambrian Era
Case History #4: Fred
Sun Poisoning
Snowball
Who's on First?
Turkey Talk
Physics
Lunch Involuntary
In and Out of the Cat Bag
Spells
The New Acquaintances
Fondue
On and Off the African Veldt
Case History #15: Melinda
Patterns
Ode to Heroine of the Future
Matches
Kurt and Natasha, a Relationship
Reading Group Guide
Slaves of New York Tama Janowitz
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for discussion for Tama Janowitz's Slaves of New York. We hope that these ideas will enrich your discussion and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Many fine books from Washington Square Press include Reading Group Guides. For a complete listing, or to read the Guides on-line, visit http:www.simonsays.com/reading/guides
DISCUSSION OUESTIONS
1. In "Modern Saint," how does the narrator's relationship with her wealthy father affect her decision to become a prostitute?
2. In "Engagements," what is the connection between Ray's fetish for women's shoes and the apartment renovation?
3. What statement does "You and the Boss" make about pop culture?
4. In the story "Life in the Pre-Cambrian Era," Marley is very egotistic. Is this relevant to the content of his an, or just contingent on his being an artist?
5. What does the cat symbolize in "Snowball"?
6. Eleanor, the narrator of "Who's on First" states "more than ever, I realize everyone I know is just playing at being a grown up, I have to include myself." Explain this in relation to the story.
7. In "Turkey Talk," what is the connection between art and food?
8. In the story "Physics," how do random events lead the narrator to the decision to have a baby?
9. Is the cat in the story "In and Out of the Cat Bag" the same as the cat in Snowball? What does it symbolize in this story?
10. What characters in Slaves of New York interest you the most? Why?
11. What themes connect these stories?
12. Are relationships in New York more complicated than in other places? Why or why not?