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The Crazy Ladies
Book by Elbert, Joyce
- GenresFiction
477 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
About the author
Joyce Elbert
26 books2 followersJoyce Elbert was born in the Bronx on February 26, 1930, the only child of Melba and Charles Krimmer, an Austrian immigrant whose once-thriving dress manufacturing company went bankrupt during the Great Depression. She attended New York City's Christopher Columbus High School and Hunter College, from which she received a bachelor of arts degree in Journalism in 1952.
In 1958, Elbert was one of the founding editors of the Provincetown Review, a literary magazine for which author Norman Mailer served as advisor. Her first novel, the semi-autobiographical Getting Rid of Richard, was completed in 1959 although it didn't see publication until 1972. Her 1969 novel, The Crazy Ladies, was dubbed "the first really great dirty book" by Cosmopolitan. In 1980, more than 5,000,000 copies of her books were in print worldwide, including translations into Spanish, French, German, and Croatian.
Elbert's last published novel, The Return of the Crazy Ladies, was released in 1984. She died on May 8, 2009, in Volusia, Florida, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), leaving behind at least seven unpublished novels, as well as several short stories and autobiographical essays.
In 1958, Elbert was one of the founding editors of the Provincetown Review, a literary magazine for which author Norman Mailer served as advisor. Her first novel, the semi-autobiographical Getting Rid of Richard, was completed in 1959 although it didn't see publication until 1972. Her 1969 novel, The Crazy Ladies, was dubbed "the first really great dirty book" by Cosmopolitan. In 1980, more than 5,000,000 copies of her books were in print worldwide, including translations into Spanish, French, German, and Croatian.
Elbert's last published novel, The Return of the Crazy Ladies, was released in 1984. She died on May 8, 2009, in Volusia, Florida, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), leaving behind at least seven unpublished novels, as well as several short stories and autobiographical essays.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 22, 2014
Cue the Motley Crue song "Girls Girls Girls"!
This book first of the so called " dirty books" from the past. I scored this book at an old antique store which was using it as a prop in a bookcase. I had to get it. Glad she sold it to me.
Loved it! Excellent story lines and great rememberable characters. Hysterical & Sexy. Such a great read.
This book first of the so called " dirty books" from the past. I scored this book at an old antique store which was using it as a prop in a bookcase. I had to get it. Glad she sold it to me.
Loved it! Excellent story lines and great rememberable characters. Hysterical & Sexy. Such a great read.
September 28, 2014
another one of my mother's books I read when she was out, aged 13.
March 8, 2011
Cosmopolitan called this "The First Really Great Dirty Book." Bringing together the stories of four women in late 1960s New York, the novel begs to be re-read (and re-issued) decades later. It's safe to say that without Joyce Elbert, Candace Bushnell wouldn't exist. And Elbert is funny. Deeply, deeply funny. Particularly in the exchanges between Simone, French transplant, It-Girl, and devil-may-care mapcap, and her best frenemy, Anita, a stewardess (emphatically NOT a flight attendent) who wants nothing more than to have a ring on her finger. Elbert revisited her heroines fifteen years later in "The Return of the Crazy Ladies," also definitely worth checking out.
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August 7, 2015"The Crazy Ladies is a sometimes sad, often hilarious, always compelling novel of four attractive girls trying to make it in the toughest town in the world. Joyce Elbert understands women, their hopes, fears, dreams, the way they feel about men."
That's what the flyleaf promised me. Within 10 pages I understood that Joyce Elbert knew NOTHING about women, outside of the stereotypical Cosmo Woman, concerned only about looks, fashion and how to be sexually satisfied. The people you meet in this book are empty-headed, selfish, self-seeking hedonists. They are as faceless and as characterless as the partygoers in The Great Gatsby. They are the stars of any number of B-grade movies - the kind that get shown at 2 am when most people are asleep. The kind that you watch and feel completely brain-dead afterwards.
Not only are the characters so awful, but the style of writing is shocking. If the book had been written in first person, like The Fault In Our Stars, the literary style - incredibly informal - would have been acceptable. But this is written as a narrative. so even that was distracting.
If you plan to read this book because it happens to be on your bookshelf - as it was on mine - do yourself a favour. Don't.
There are no redeeming qualities to this book - it was an utter waste of time.
That's what the flyleaf promised me. Within 10 pages I understood that Joyce Elbert knew NOTHING about women, outside of the stereotypical Cosmo Woman, concerned only about looks, fashion and how to be sexually satisfied. The people you meet in this book are empty-headed, selfish, self-seeking hedonists. They are as faceless and as characterless as the partygoers in The Great Gatsby. They are the stars of any number of B-grade movies - the kind that get shown at 2 am when most people are asleep. The kind that you watch and feel completely brain-dead afterwards.
Not only are the characters so awful, but the style of writing is shocking. If the book had been written in first person, like The Fault In Our Stars, the literary style - incredibly informal - would have been acceptable. But this is written as a narrative. so even that was distracting.
If you plan to read this book because it happens to be on your bookshelf - as it was on mine - do yourself a favour. Don't.
There are no redeeming qualities to this book - it was an utter waste of time.
May 10, 2011
As a 20-something guy I was looking for something racy to read,
which is what literary 20-something guys do, and using the time honored
male method of judging a book its cover I found 'Crazy Ladies', which
turned out to be a good read, NO, not just for 'those' parts, of
which I'm happy to say there were plenty, mmm, of which I'm sure I reread a
few times.
I see from the listings that there is a 'Return of the Crazy Ladies'.
Might have to see what they've been up to.
June 30, 2013
Funny & filthy!
May 25, 2012
I don't suppose I'd qualify as a real American, had I not spent my twenties questioning and/or violating every moral standard to which I'd adhered as a child.
Those were the '80s and '90s. We were "Gen-X." And decadence was in -- at first.
"So what's on the agenda tonight?"
"Screw 'tonight,' dude. Get over here right now! We're all calling in sick today. We have four cases of beer, every David Cronenberg, Ken Russell, David Lynch, Wes Craven, and Herschel Gordon Lewis film ever made, and a bag of peyote buttons. We scored a complete collection of _Weirdo_, _Neat Stuff_, Zap Comix_, and _Anarchy Comics_ (Stan's behind on his rent again...), a copy of _Behind the Green Door_, and a tape of some pornstar called Traci something-or-the-other (I hear she's hot!). Mel has a a stripper who used to be a contortionist coming over to serve Jello-O shots -- oh, and have you heard any of the bands coming out of Seattle these days? They're actually playing *heavy* stuff, dude; way better than that 'hair metal' s***..."
Naturally, the preceding imaginary (and somewhat hyperbolic)account compresses several years of accumulated degeneracy into a single, imaginary party. It is, however, an accurate expression of the *Zeitgeist*, if you will -- and even if you won't.
Part and parcel of said *Zeitgiest* (i.e., *not* attempting to remake the world in our own image -- the previous generation had tried; and we had only junk-bonds, STD epidemics, the S&L crisis, twenty years of static MHI -- adjusted for inflation -- and yet another recession to show for it) was an attitude both libertarian and libertine. Unlike the 'Boomers,' whose rejection of authority abruptly ended when they *became* the authorities, we were serious. Unfortunately, there were (and still are) 75 million of them, and only 40-or-so million of us.
Without tooting our collective horn, I'll say that on the whole, we were more pensive, more individualistic, and much less inclined to accept or reject anything categorically. Once the youthful rebelliousness (see above)had run its course, our interests lay more in the direction of exploration than of conquest or destruction. Ours was, for lack of a better term, a "Jeet Kune Do mentality": Evaluate *everything* by merit rather than popularity, then synthesize the best elements into something useful or aesthetically pleasing.
The major failing of this approach (especially in the transitional stage between rebellion and exploration) is that it leads one to read unconscionable quantities of utter "horth thit." What seems subversive and perhaps even naughty at twenty-four seems trite, short-sighted, and vastly overrated at thirty-four. At forty-four, it seems downright juvenile and imbecilic -- tantrums and fantasies lent ersatz "legitimacy" by virtue of appearing in print. In short, one realizes that the emperor wears fewer clothes than the characters in the f***** book...
Scroll back to paragraphs 3 and 4 momentarily. Finished? Good.
Same two guys, twenty-plus years later:
"Did you ever get around to reading _________ ?"
"Oh, God! That? Yeah, why?"
"Looking at it now, doesn't it read like a 200-page Penthouse letter with a pinch of character development thrown in?"
"Haw! What page was the character development on, dude? I must've missed it. I only remember a bunch of nymphos with preschool mindsets. They kinda remind me of my last boss's daughter, come to think of it..."
Sorry, Joyce: It just doesn't work anymore -- if ever it did.
And for you young'uns out there: Just go to the gas station, lie about your age, and buy a skin mag. The material is less pretentious, and you'll be less inclined to court psychosis by trying to convince yourself that it's "art."
Those were the '80s and '90s. We were "Gen-X." And decadence was in -- at first.
"So what's on the agenda tonight?"
"Screw 'tonight,' dude. Get over here right now! We're all calling in sick today. We have four cases of beer, every David Cronenberg, Ken Russell, David Lynch, Wes Craven, and Herschel Gordon Lewis film ever made, and a bag of peyote buttons. We scored a complete collection of _Weirdo_, _Neat Stuff_, Zap Comix_, and _Anarchy Comics_ (Stan's behind on his rent again...), a copy of _Behind the Green Door_, and a tape of some pornstar called Traci something-or-the-other (I hear she's hot!). Mel has a a stripper who used to be a contortionist coming over to serve Jello-O shots -- oh, and have you heard any of the bands coming out of Seattle these days? They're actually playing *heavy* stuff, dude; way better than that 'hair metal' s***..."
Naturally, the preceding imaginary (and somewhat hyperbolic)account compresses several years of accumulated degeneracy into a single, imaginary party. It is, however, an accurate expression of the *Zeitgeist*, if you will -- and even if you won't.
Part and parcel of said *Zeitgiest* (i.e., *not* attempting to remake the world in our own image -- the previous generation had tried; and we had only junk-bonds, STD epidemics, the S&L crisis, twenty years of static MHI -- adjusted for inflation -- and yet another recession to show for it) was an attitude both libertarian and libertine. Unlike the 'Boomers,' whose rejection of authority abruptly ended when they *became* the authorities, we were serious. Unfortunately, there were (and still are) 75 million of them, and only 40-or-so million of us.
Without tooting our collective horn, I'll say that on the whole, we were more pensive, more individualistic, and much less inclined to accept or reject anything categorically. Once the youthful rebelliousness (see above)had run its course, our interests lay more in the direction of exploration than of conquest or destruction. Ours was, for lack of a better term, a "Jeet Kune Do mentality": Evaluate *everything* by merit rather than popularity, then synthesize the best elements into something useful or aesthetically pleasing.
The major failing of this approach (especially in the transitional stage between rebellion and exploration) is that it leads one to read unconscionable quantities of utter "horth thit." What seems subversive and perhaps even naughty at twenty-four seems trite, short-sighted, and vastly overrated at thirty-four. At forty-four, it seems downright juvenile and imbecilic -- tantrums and fantasies lent ersatz "legitimacy" by virtue of appearing in print. In short, one realizes that the emperor wears fewer clothes than the characters in the f***** book...
Scroll back to paragraphs 3 and 4 momentarily. Finished? Good.
Same two guys, twenty-plus years later:
"Did you ever get around to reading _________ ?"
"Oh, God! That? Yeah, why?"
"Looking at it now, doesn't it read like a 200-page Penthouse letter with a pinch of character development thrown in?"
"Haw! What page was the character development on, dude? I must've missed it. I only remember a bunch of nymphos with preschool mindsets. They kinda remind me of my last boss's daughter, come to think of it..."
Sorry, Joyce: It just doesn't work anymore -- if ever it did.
And for you young'uns out there: Just go to the gas station, lie about your age, and buy a skin mag. The material is less pretentious, and you'll be less inclined to court psychosis by trying to convince yourself that it's "art."
August 19, 2012
The first of the "dirty" books, I think!
March 2, 2013
Read this back in high school.
February 17, 2009
Not my kind of book but not disapointed to have read it.
very bizare but funny at the end.
very bizare but funny at the end.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews