Großstadtsklaven

by Tama Janowitz

A coterie of artists, prostitutes, saints, and seers are all aspiring towards fame and hoping for love and acceptance. Instead they find high rents, faithless partners, and dead-end careers. Offbeat, funny and bitingly satirical, "Slaves of New York" sheds an incomparable light on the city's denizens and social mores.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, New York, Literary Fiction, Literature, American, The United States Of America

287 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Tama Janowitz is an American novelist and a short story writer. The 2005 September/October issue of Pages magazine listed her as one of the four "brat pack" authors, along with Bret Easton Ellis, Mark Lindquist and Jay McInerney.

Born in San Francisco, California to a psychiatrist father and literature professor mother who divorced when she was ten, Janowitz moved to the East Coast of the United States to attend Barnard College and the Columbia University School of the Arts and started writing about life in New York City, where she had settled down.

She socialized with Andy Warhol and became well-known in New York's literary and social circles. Her 1986 collection of short stories, Slaves of New York brought her wider fame. Slaves of New York was adapted into a 1989 film directed by James Ivory and starring Bernadette Peters. Janowitz wrote the screenplay and also appeared, playing Peters' friend.

Janowitz has published seven novels, one collection of stories and one work of non-fiction. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Tim Hunt, and their adopted daughter.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Numerous short stories essentially set amongst the same peer group, creatives in 1980s Greenwich Village, New York; and it is with aplomb Janowitz shares an almost blistering accurate ride through this community leaving no stone unturned as the stories talk of a life of survival as most of them work towards (or don't) to their big break. Above all it savagely and wittily details the unrealistic and to certain degree in-denial lives not too subtlety covered by their self-conscious posturing and just like most other communities desperate need not to be alone... bur albeit probably a tad funnier because of the pretentiousness of it all?

I can imagine someone who hasn't really read any of the blurb being condescending and appalled about the characters/characterisations, and that would be kudos to Janowitz for so convincingly creating this reality. Limited appeal outside the West for this one, although it should be noted that this a great example of expansive short storytelling within a single reality which I really really liked. A 7 out of 12, Three Star read :)

2023 read

[Marissa Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

"What happened? How did she lose her job?"
"Ah, this guy came into the deli and asked if they sold half a grapefruit. Lacey told the guy they didn't sell grapefruit halves, only whole ones. But this guy was very persistent and didn't believe her, and insisted she go and ask the manager. So she went into the back room, not realizing the customer was following her. And she yelled, 'Hey, Eddie, some asshole out there wants to buy half a grapefruit.' And then suddenly she realized that the customer was standing right next to her, and she said, 'And this gentleman here would like the other half.'"

[Jonathan Ashleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book of short stories I have ever read that felt like a novel at some points. The characters are interesting and the dialog seems real and the characters you come to know are people you want to know about. Marley and Elenor are the main ones and their stories only coincide for a moment, but the rest of everyone seems like they could all be living in the same building. Because this is a book about New York with "New York" in the title, there is something understood going in and that is one of the reasons this feels novelesque even though some of the short stories/chapters are about far off topics told from varying perspectives. Many of the stories seem to connect anyway but the story about Bruce Springsteen is one that I couldn't comprehend. It's a quick read and this book will probably rise to prominence again.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must have more. Need more now. Send help soon. I am not sure I will survive without more from this author immediately. I need it and I cannot go on without...more!!.
Please, tell me that her other works are congruent with this one. Because this is BRILLIANCE! Pure sheer Brilliance. I laughed hysterically, but it was more like scream laughing, it was seriously that funny. And it felt good to laugh that deep into my soul. I suggest you go purchase the movie as well, they are both amazing, and different yet similar.
I relate to Eleanor so hard, we share the same awkward clumsy eccentric social anxiety ridden traits. Please tell me there is more, you can not just simply take this away from me, I want to read it for the rest of my life. Eleanor is my spirit animal.
I savored the last 40 pages as long as I could, begrudgingly seeing the end approaching, NO! I forced myself to set the book down every chapter.
Can't I still carry it around with me, pretending I am still reading it? *wails*
This moved swiftly upward my list into my top 5 favorites of all times.
I hate to compare, absolutely LOATH to compare, especially when I am doing a female vs. male author, BUUUUUUUUUUT
If you love Brett Easton Ellis as much as I do, you will love her. I am not quite sure what makes them so strikingly similar, their knack for hilarious story telling when it is only a "day in the life of" type of book that focuses on location and character studies. Or, their HILARIOUS dry wit, filled to the brim with delicious sarcasm and satire. Maybe it is their ability to dive straight into the trash and nitty gritty without appearing to lose their prestige.
They both need to produce more novels, similar to these fanatical stories. I mean otherwise I will wither up and die... we don't want that right!?

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's so hip to knock her, or was before she vanished completely from the "cool radar" like the fat kid in the ball bin at Chucky Cheese. Wait, that was a REALLY mixed metaphor! I like her. A sort of I LOVE THE 80s cheesiness and camp. She's not deep not because she's not smart, but probably because she realized early on that the ideological war thing is just a bunch of kids throwing goop and shit at each other on the subway. She got more interested in how or why people survive...or don't. Sort of like Eileen Myles in that regard. Smart. Funny. Her time.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quintessence of the eighties can be found in this book, which caused a sensation then. It's still a delightful read, vividly written and quite insightful. New York glitters and fascinates, thanks to Janowit'z style. It's interesting how, now, already, this world somehow seems to belong to a lost era, giving to this book a kind of nostalgic patina that it didn't have at the time it was published. Janowitz beautifully writes about her city and makes you feel why it's such a unique, vibrant place.

[John Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished it. So I'm 20 years after the fact. Sue me.

Well, I liked it...but I'm sure that's at least partly a by-product of being old enough to remember New York in the 80s when artists (and junkies and drifters...sometimes combined in one body) could be found all over New York. It's a scattershot memoir of a time gone by; bittersweet for me. Hated the hair of the 80s; loved the experimentalism. The 80s took more chances than any decade of the century other than the 60s and, maybe, the 20s.

Side note...I'm baffled by people who talk about this with Sex in the City in any way, shape, or form. The narrators/protagonists of Janowitz's book are avant garde artists and social fringe dwellers trying to stay off drugs and scrape together rent to stay in scummy apartments. They are virtually as far from Carrie and Co. as it's possible to be. Comparing this to SATC (or putting down one work in the context of the other) is like comparing Peanuts and Watership Down because they both deal with animals.

[Tommie Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time Favorites!!!

[C. Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is terrific,amazing and well written.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Haven't read it in a while, but fondly remember the characters. Janowitz shows us the NYC 80's art scene from the inside out. This book is a modern classic and is recommended to anyone interested in art, the eighties, or the struggles of urban life.

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

the writing is casual and chatty, the stories amusing and strange. sort of a trifle, yet such an enjoyable one.

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This is a collection of tales about New York City in the 1980s and is considered a major work of the literary brat pack. The best thing about this was Janowitz’s writing because it’s incredibly unique and addictive, weaving through the lives of various people around New York and daring you to follow them in their hedonistic and self destructive tirades.

I liked some stories better than others; the very last story was my absolute favourite and has left me genuinely haunted. At some parts I found the stories quite stale but I think disillusionment and stagnation is part of the 80s youth culture so didn’t mind this. Reading so much Ellis and McInerney made me know what I was in for before I event started this.

Tama is amazing anyway. Like she is just wonderful. I want to read more of her stuff and I think she’ll excel in her later novels and memoir.

[Moira · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terribly overrated.

[Leo Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many stories syndrome! Just condense and tell the best 10. #Jesus

[Deniz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slaves of New York is made up of individual stories about people in the art scene in the 80s. The characters are very original, with some reccurring ones: Eleanor the jewelry designer, and Marley the "genius" painter. For me, the downside was the length of this book made up of unrelated stories. I wasn't enthusiastic about continuing after the first half because I knew there wasn't going to be any character development or plot twists I could be excited about. There were only many peeks inside lives in New York, similar to the ones before them.
Although it's clear that talent is there, I'm not sure if Janowitz has put it to good use. I found it hard to finish the book, and I would abandon it if I was okay with not finishing books. It's a good read for a lazy afternoon and for a hundred pages. After that, not so much.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories centered on a few downtown NYC artists. Janowitz is not without talent, but too many of these stories feel almost extravagantly pointless, trailing off into a kind of deadpan absurdity or hipster poignancy (it took me over a month to finally finish it). I did enjoy the stories centered on Eleanor, a mixed up twenty-something jewelry maker involved in a bad relationship with a semi-successful artist named Stash; these seemed the most focused and relatable (not to mention—at their very best—sharply witty and observant). Mostly this is an 80's curio, a snapshot of author Janowitz's 15 minutes in the mid-to-late years of that decade; the cover art alone is the 80's in a nutshell.

[Bookish Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has it really been thirty years since Tama Janowitz’s collection of short stories Slaves of New York was released? I read it a several years after its initial release, and to me, a young girl who grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, Slaves of New York and Janowitz just defined the Big Apple to me, the way her WASPy peers Bret Easton Ellis and Jay McInerney and their literary offerings never did. But then again, as a dorky, most definitely non-WASPy kind of girl, this shouldn’t surprise me.

Imagine a Pre-Guiliani New York of the 1980s. This was before Times Square was completely cleaned-up and Disney-fied, Donald Trump was just a loud and tacky business man, not the GOP candidate for president (yes, a much kinder, simpler time), “greed is good” was the mantra of every yuppie sporting slicked back hair and suspenders, the World Trade Center defined the Manhattan skyline and “Sex and The City” and “Girls” weren’t notions in the heads of Sarah Jessica Parker and Lena Dunham.

Slaves of New York is a collection of intermingled stories of struggling and hustling painters, designers, performance artists, writers, and other creative types. One creative type we meet is Eleanor who is in her late twenties and trying to make it as a jewelry designer. She lives with her boyfriend, Stash, who is a graffiti artist, temperamental and only fleetingly devoted to Eleanor, sometimes going for days without speaking to her for some minor infraction on her part.

As a jewelry designer, Eleanor feels she is a failure and is frustrated by her lack of artistic and professional success. Furthermore, she desires more of a commitment from Stash, marriage, but that is isn’t about to happen any time soon.

And even though Eleanor knows she should fully break free from Stash, find someone better and concentrate more on her jewelry designs she doesn’t. Her relationship with Stash isn’t just about love; it’s also about having a place to live. Eleanor can’t afford to pay rent all on her own; yes, the rent is too damn high!

Another slave of New York is Marley Mantello, the protagonist of five of Janowitz’s tales. Marley fashions himself of a genius painter, on the verge of being the “next big thing.” What he lacks in actual talent and skill, he makes up in sheer bravado and being a legend in his own mind. He pays no mind to those who merely orbit his universe. Yes, Marley is unbelievably obnoxious and best to be ignored if one runs into him. But there are times when tragedy befalls him, and he shows a true humanity that makes you feel a smidge of compassion, like when his sister commits suicide.

Other stories between the covers of Slaves of New York include a man who claims to be rich and takes unsuspecting women “jewelry shopping “at Tiffany’s. Why he does this, he can’t quite explain. Maybe it’s just easier to pose as an eccentric man of considerable means, rather actually be the poor guy he actually is.

Other tales told include one of man, Victor, who suffers from a cocktail of ailments, neuroses and acid reflux being just a couple of them. Cora gets involved with Ray, not for love, but through him she can a cop a decent meal now and then and some free furniture for her new apartment. She should feel guilty, especially considering she’s graduate student of women’ studies; but hey, she’s just trying to survive. And in another tale, a spoiled, rich girl, after getting expelled from college and enduring a brief marriage, dabbles in prostitution and heroin (haven’t we all?).

But for me, Slaves of New York, is Eleanor’s story. Like me, Eleanor is from a small town, both befuddled and in wonderment the city and all it has to offer. She’s desperate to fit into the artistic, creative, madcap world that surrounds her, but finds herself coming up short. She’s such a naïve lass that she doesn’t realize a fashion designer she has coffee with is gay, which reminded me how shocked I was the first time I saw two guys making out at a party even though I had no problem with gay people. And I can only imagine the look on my face when I saw some ladies snorting coke in at a dance club bathroom; I’d seen Scarface on cable, for goodness sake! And aside to my mother, I have never done coke, okay?

We now live in very different time that existed in 1986. Business moguls are now rock stars, and rock stars aspire to be moguls. Google is a verb, people don’t want to be artists, but instead they want to be brands, and we let our social media define us. Yet, Eleanor’s tale is eternal. We want to be independent, desire success, express ourselves in a creative matter, and still want the stability and security we think only a marriage will offer. Sure, at times Slaves of New York is sentimental, dated read, but I still found it entertaining and can still relate to Janowitz’s debut.

Originally published at the Book Self:
https://thebookselfblog.wordpress.com...

[A.J. Llewellyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have had this book ever since it came out and couldn't sleep last night and pulled it off the shelf. Parts of this book have lived in my head since I first read it in the 1980's. I loved it then. I gobbled up this book in NYC at the time, visiting my brother who was living on Hudson Street. Tama put her finger on a time and place in NYC that is long gone, but still resonates.
If you want to know what the city was like then, this is it. Read it and weep. She is all that and a bag of chips.
When I first read this book, I envied her style and longed for her success. I wanted to have her career! This book still packs a punch and the moments I remembered are still strong. This was the first novel I ever read that depicted people eating live monkey brains. I never knew it existed. Still haven't forgotten those scenes...and remain haunted by them.
I am surprised Tama's become such a whipping post for critics. She still has an amazing turn of phrase. I still love her and will read some of her other stories next.

[Relyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book - UGH! Of course, any book that starts out describing a variety of penises has got to be pretty horrible. It was. At first, the book was like a mystery I wanted to solve. Why on Earth would a major magazine like Oprah (I think that was the one.) recommend such a book? I'm thinking, "Surely the rest is better. Surely the start was a fluke." Nope, it wasn't. Aside for the unappealing (that's an understatement) subject matter, the writing really wasn't very good. I finally had to just stop reading. The mystery remains unsolved. Why did a major magazine recommend this crappy book?

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Semi-sharp satire of the New York art world in the 80s.
Not as brilliant, I think, as the blurbs on the wrappers make it out to be. But mostly good.

[Danielle Chelosky · Rating 5 out of 5]

masterpiece

[berthamason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started Slaves of New York after reading both Thomas DePietro’s and Jay McInerney’s reviews of the book. At first, I found their criticism harsh but as I delved into the book I ended up agreeing with most of the points made by them. I agree with McInerney’s remark that the characters in Janowitz’s short stories “do not experience catharsis or epiphany”, “stories are static” and the “maddening passivity” displayed by these characters is “reflected in the narrative stance”.

I found Eleanor particularly irritating in her cluelessness and passivity for two reasons: she gets more stories than other recurrent characters and she always seems to be on the verge of an epiphany that never happens. Her moments of quasi-insight frustrated me immensely throughout the book. Eleanor is capable of self-realisation - “I understood that I was at a period in my life when everything was falling apart” (260) – but she somehow always ends up reverting to her old passivity.

The nonchalant narrative tone employed by Tama Janowitz suggests a lack of care for her characters that results in the reader caring even less for whatever happens to them. Examples: Eleanor (once again) repeating to herself that she’s “getting used to” (8) her boyfriend’s psychological abuse, deciding that her actions don’t make a difference - “If I had gotten into the limousine earlier that evening I’d be in the same mess, only in a different neighbourhood” (135) – or another character choosing “to ignore the problem” (147) instead of facing it.

I also agree with DePietro’s observation that the reader is “never certain whether these often disposable tales are a symptom or a parody of the junk culture Janowitz chronicles so well”. Even after reading a few interviews with her and some excerpts from her autobiography I’m still not sure how I should approach her work.

Was her intention to write satirical stories? If so, this would, at least in my opinion, elevate the literary status of Slaves of New York.

According to reviews, in her autobiography, Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction, she manages to reveal as little about herself as the characters in her stories: “When Janowitz gets coy or retreats into cliché in passages about her famous friends, it doesn’t seem to be out of discretion. You get the sense, rather, that it pains her to give readers the gossip they want”.

When Berman concludes that the sentences in her autobiography “rarely have the emotional impact she intends” due to her “short, blunt, purposely self-evident” writing style, I can’t help but agree with him.

I only wish I could have known her characters better.

There’s a good interview on YouTube in which she discusses her autobiography and life in New York in the 1980s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew-rW...

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If there is one time period I love about New York, it's the 80's, the yuppies, the music scene, the fashion, the drugs, the life!. Here we have snippets of various characters who inhabitant the Big Apple, dead end people just seem to float about searching for something greater than the existence they currently have, they want a slice of the NYC pie!, Manhattan is the place where these short stories take place, awash with money for some, oblivion for others, for Eleanor just finding a place to stay is problematic after getting in with the art scene crowd, you get a sense of disillusionment for all these lost souls, drifters, dreamers, losers, it's where some get the break and go on to live excess lives, while for others life is simply the equivalent of a blind alley. Janowitz captures this time really well, and the narrative packs a punch, but on the whole the characters I just couldn't give a damn about, no sympathies here, just those who sit comfortably in the corner for the self-loathing.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember what a stir this caused when it came out; how vociferous were the jealous anti-Janowitz crowd. So anyway it was speaking to me with its gaudy '80s cover design (not shown here) and my memory of a cultural gap unfilled and so I succumbed to the $3.98 price and purchased same.

Read the first two stories and apart from the interesting physical detail and attitudes found them a tad quaint. But short and enjoyable. New York stories kind of interest me at the moment after having enjoyed Arthur Nersesian's "The Fuck Up."

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have loved the movie since I was in High School before I subsquintly moved to New York where I started my own life as an artist. I finally just started reading the original book and it is great. My goal was for my book Getting Personal to be a more up to date LA version with the same unapologetic rawness. Definately read Slaves of New York, and watch the movie if you can. It's a who's who of great Indie film actors before they blew up.

[Joost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard. Iemand anders schreef in een eerdere review dat hoewel het korte verhalen zijn het soms net als een aansluitend verhaal leest. Leuk dat alle losse kleine verhalen toch op een hele minimale manier in verbinding staan met de grotere verhalen.

Goede humor en een aantal hele vreemde personages. Heel prettig en vlot geschreven. Mist de laatste ster omdat er geen echt plot is.

[Lukáš Cabala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poviedky o rôznych egomaniakoch, narcistoch, úbožiakoch, snaživcoch - všetko z umeleckej a možno i z pseudoumeleckej sféry - na pozadí skvelej newyorskej atmosféry 80tych rokov.

[flaminia · Rating 2 out of 5]

back to the 80's, senza nemmeno il conforto di uno straccio di canzone dell'epoca.

[Luisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessantes Ding hier. Janowitz hat einen originellen Schreibstil, die Charaktere sind einprägsam weil skurril und eigen und man empfindet die Beklemmungsgefühle von New York in den 80er. Alles war prätentiös und alle kannten irgendwen. Waren zum Teil für sich stehende Geschichten oder one day in the life of wiederkehrenden Charakteren, wie die erstmal unselbstständige Eleanor oder der Egomanen-Künstler Marley Malone. Bin leider kein großer Fan von kurzen Stories, oder ist grad nicht die Zeit dafür.

[Grace Camille · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to be a constant actress, on my guard and yet fitting into every situation. Always the wedge of moon above, reminding me of my destiny and holy water. (6)

Once again, I felt we had nothing to say to each other, but Ray told me the plot of a movie he had just seen. This is a symptom. I've noticed how any time a man tells me the plot of a movie, it is a kind of declaration of love. (21)

You would give anything to be so sure of yourself, so American. (63)

Three weeks and I didn't miss it at all. But as soon as I got back tonight, I went straight to my dealer's. That's New York for you. (90)

More than ever, I realize, everyone I know is just playing at being a grown-up; I have to include myself. (93)

It's a surprise to me, to be twenty-seven with my life still unsettled. (98)

I suddenly wished I could go back to school and take physics again; I knew this time I could understand it. The notion of random particles, random events, didn't seem at all difficult to comprehend. The whole business was like understanding traffic patterns, with unplanned crackups and hit-and-run accidents. Somewhere I read that increasing the rate of collisions between positrons and electrons will result in interesting "events" that physicists can study. Quarks, quirks, leptons, protons, valance electrons, tracers, kryptons, isotropes- who knew what powerful forces were at work? I saw how emotions caused objects to go whizzing about. If I had gotten into the limousine earlier that evening I'd be in the same mess, only in a different neighborhood; at least in this place I had love, a feeling that came at a person like a Dodgem car in an amusement park, where the sign says PROCEED AT OWN RISK. (135)

"Uh," I say. "Something's wrong with me. I don't think I'm the same person anymore." (159)

I move to the edge of the bed, bend over, my head between my knees. My hair touches the floor. In my veins- some thin and twisty, others flat, ropy- I can feel my blood, thrown for a loop, struggling to flow uphill where only a second before it was flowing down. (170)

I lay on my bed and shut my eyes. I was thinking about my mother. She had tried to teach me to be a femme fatale, I don't know why her lessons hadn't taken before. I guess she had started too late. Now I could see my life was going to be different. Then I passed out. (195)

"I don't like to watch my food die in front of me; I like my meat to be killed and cooked offstage before I eat it." For a moment Borali looked embarrassed, as if he had revealed something he shouldn't have. (218)

I knew then it was up to me to negotiate a life for myself. I remembered a guy I had met and wrote him a letter. (228)