New York City in 1979

by Kathy Acker

"It is necessary to go to as many extremes as possible."

A tale of art, sex, blood, junkies and whores in New York's underground, from cult literary icon Kathy Acker.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, New York, Modern Classics, Essays, 20th Century

47 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

About the author

Born of German-Jewish stock, Kathy Acker was brought up by her mother and stepfather (her natural father left her mother before Kathy was born) in a prosperous district of NY. At 18, she left home and worked as a stripper. Her involvement in the sex industry helped to make her a hit on the NY art scene, and she was photographed by the newly fashionable Robert Mapplethorpe. Preferring to be known simply as 'Acker' (the name she took from her first husband Robert, and which she continued to use even after a short-lived second marriage to composer Peter Gordon), she moved to London in the mid-eighties and stayed in Britain for five years.

Acker's writing is as difficult to classify into any particular genre as she herself was. She writes fluidly, operating in the borderlands and junkyards of human experience. Her work is experimental, playful, and provocative, engagingly alienating, narratively non sequitur.

Reviews

[Fede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little book is a condensed literary monster. In fact it belongs to no genre and eludes any attempt to classify it.
According to most (Good)readers, it's total crap; according to Fede's humble opinion, it's good - in its own way. 47 pages of urban snapshots reminding of neon light and videoclips, sort of poetic prose fed with Freebase imagery and late 70s amorality, a concentrate of Acker's unique writing style.

I personally don't understand why people seem to dislike this book so much; maybe they expected it to be some kind of revolutionary milestone in literature and found themselves disappointed by its apparent simplicity?
It's basically a collection of short dialogues and even shorter random thoughts and aphorisms, plus some b/w pictures of New York. The subject? Hard to tell. Whores spending the night in jail, pseudo-artists discussing their questionable notions about feminism, the revolting description of an old woman's genitals, an existentialist / punk / intellectual / nymphomaniac who is seduced and dumped by an allegedly homosexual guy... and, around and above them, 'New York City in 1979': drugs, nightclubs, street-art, safety pins stuck through upper lips, green Mohawks, subculture, counterculture, the death of culture. The end of DecaDance and the beginning of decadence.

All in all, an interesting read and a good introduction to Acker's work - at least, not so shallow as many readers describe it.
An overwhelming sense of mental and physical alienation can be perceived in these few pages. Take these two excerpts, for instance:

"I am lonely out of my mind. I am miserable out of my mind. Now I'm going into the state where desire comes out like a monster."

"As soon as Janey's fucking she wants to be adored as much as possible at the same time as, its other extreme, ignored as much as possible.
This is the nature of reality. No rationality possible. Only this is true. The world in which there is no feeling doesn't exist. This world is a very dangerous place to live in."

This should have been a much longer book; I would have loved reading some 200 more pages of such fascinating prose.
By the way, I read this with more painkillers than blood flowing through my veins and two thick swabs up my nose, so my judgement might be a bit unreliable at the moment. I enjoyed it: let's leave it at that.


(Suggested soundtrack: Blondie, "Atomic", 1979)

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snapshots of gritty lives in NYC. A mixture of conversational snippets mostly about sex with odd political lectures thrown in. I kind of like Acker's writing but I can't claim to understand her.

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

''Intense sexual desire is the greatest thing in the world.''

‘LESBIANS are women who prefer their own ways to male ways.’
Women💕💕💕>men
‘Janye dreams of cocks. Janey sees cocks instead of objects. Janye has to fuck.’
Very inspiring 69/10
I didn’t know when I got this that it contained pictures. They are really fucking good.
I love big cities. I don’t think I can live anywhere else.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have not previously read any of Acker’s work and, despite not wholly gelling with this collection, would be interested to read more from her. This brief volume read like nothing other than a punch in the face. The writing style, the tone used, and the language chosen all clearly and cleverly duplicated the focus on New York’s dark and seething underbelly. The reader was spared no ounce of pain nor passion, villainy or vulgarity, and whilst I appreciate this, I also did not fully understand what I was supposed to take away from these insights.

[Lee Foust · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well I came to San Francisco for the summer hoping against hope to find inexpensive copies of Acker's books to continue my project of reading her in order backward but, just like last summer's fruitless search for a dog-eared copy of To the Lighthouse--for fuck's sake--I've drawn a blank. Although I have found a nice copy of Gaddis's A Frolic of His Own, the next of his I wanted to read, so I'm not complaining too much. This little gem was so compact, though, I had the foresight to slip into a side pocket of my suitcase just in case of Acker withdrawals. They came on strong this afternoon so I read it.

Scrumptious.

It has, in a super compact little gem, most of Acker's most interesting themes and techniques. The rapid-fire string of logical sentences burying us in the most radical politics. Useless descriptions of nothingnesses. A little autobiography. A bit of Baudelaire. The NYC scene. The Mudd Club. (I didn't even mind the photos and I like the single book format.)

I loved it. Just what the doctor ordered.

[Liam O'Leary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most underrated Penguin Modern I've read so far (26/50). It's not brilliant but definitely fresh and unique and I think the way they've put photos of NYC in this book make it feel like the first decent Penguin Modern, it feels complete.

Kathy was a punk and if you can accept that then you'll see this is better than the beat writers we still talk too much about!

[Kirsty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aside from reading the first twenty or so pages of Blood and Guts in High School before deciding it wasn't for me and putting it down, I was quite unfamiliar with Kathy Acker's work. 'New York City in 1979' is a short story described in its blurb as 'a tale of art, sex, blood, junkies and whores in New York's underground.' Acker is referred to in the same blurb as a 'cult literary icon'.

This is the first Penguin Modern to include photographs in my ordered reading of the series, and these, which are by Anne Turyn, I enjoyed. I was not keen at all on the accompanying text, however. Its blurb makes it sound rather gritty, which I am fine with. I found the story vulgar, though. 'New York City in 1979', which was first published in 1981, is fragmented in its prose style and format, and feels rather cobbled together. There is little coherence here; rather, it feels as though Acker made a series of notes, connected only due to their New York setting, and published them without any editing. The tone is impersonal and detached, and the characters are so shadowy that it is difficult to feel anything for them. I felt as though Acker was shrieking her words at times, a fan as she is of random capitalisation. I found 'New York City in 1979' a very awkward tale to read, and the photographs were the only thing here which I enjoyed.

[eslem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Must be read in a coffeehouse

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

A product of its time, which is exactly what makes it worth reading.

[Maisie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never has something been so pretentious yet so shit

[Gert De Bie · Rating 3 out of 5]

We lazen onlangs ergens een referentie aan 'New York City in 1979' van Kathy Acker waardoor een exemplaar op ons nachtkastje belandde. (We moeten dringend onze referenties noteren, want waar we dat oppikten? Geen flauw idee).

New York City in 1979 is een kort, caleidoscopisch portret van de rafelranden van de stad. Queers en prostituees passeren de revue, de toestand van de wereld wordt afgemeten aan de sekslust van passerende personages en de rebellie, de sympathie voor het andere en de schreeuw om de status quo te doorbreken zindert tussen de regels.

De korte schetsen worden afgewisseld met foto's. Prima tussendoortje.

[marcel⁷ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Noortje · Rating 3 out of 5]

Due to the amount of times the words ‘cock’ and ‘cunt’ appeared in this little book, not the best book to read on public transport. First introduction into Acker’s repertoire, curious to read more.

[Nile · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overwhelming urge half way through to go up to my nan's flat on the 18th floor and absolutely launch it from the balcony and watch it swing with great jagged edges and stunning velocity into the unknown.

Not a judgement call on the material which sometimes made it up to *** and sometimes down to *, just an inexplicable drive from someone almost universally too reserved to litter like that under normal circumstances.

[Joe Maggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I usually turn against this style of writing, where often the usual rules of grammar are thrown out to try and convey something, but here it really works when deployed. If the goal of these stories was to project a vivid image of an urban environment encompassing serious social and relational chaos in the late 1970s then it succeeded, aided by the inclusion of photographs which is a first for this collection and very welcome. In one section the narrative becomes severely grotesque, presumably to convey the tormenting and relentless train of thought - if so, it works. Bound together we get the compelling depiction of a group of incestuous and passionate intersecting friends at the forefront of the counterculture and social rebellion of latter-20th century America and an exploration of how the various threads pull on their lives.

[el · Rating 3 out of 5]

certainly of its time. 2.7/5.

[Bookish Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Intense sexual desire is the greatest thing in the world"

I really don't see why this has received such mediocre reviews? It's brilliant, quick, magnificently erotic and completely all over the place - it's like reading the mind of someone with ADHD on speed and I adore it completely. I love the repetition, the seething sexuality, the talk of feminism and capitalism - of humans becoming robots to survive and of rich hippies reeping the hard work of the poor and turning into their pleasure. It is grotesque and celebrates that.

But I love reading about the New York art scene in the 60s and 70s and I love reading raw words that dont fit together conventionally. Acker shows a desirous and loose underbelly of a society that has me in thrall.

[Yeshi Dolma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fast, real and dirty just like nyc in 1979 (and maybe now too).

[Jess Heath · Rating 1 out of 5]

i guess the pictures were ok

[Masha M · Rating 5 out of 5]

love the short form and this one is particularly great i wish somebody would make a movie or a show based on the book it is extremely scenic

[andreea. · Rating 4 out of 5]

.

[Neil Fulwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part montage, part reportage, part prose poem, Acker pulls no punches in her account of lives criss-crossing or diverging against a backdrop of poverty, jail and prostitution. The wannabe artist and the worn-out hooker come across as no different under the microscope of Acker’s warts-and-all prose, which is by turns sad, sympathetic and grotesque. By the end of this little Penguin Modern volume, however, it was hard to shake the suspicion that, rather than building up to a valid point about the lovelessness of modern urban life, Acker was simply out to shock.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bizarre but captivating. Good short read

[Tess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I

[Bookish]

During a recent trip to London, I popped my head into the extremely cute Brick Lane Bookshop and picked up Kathy Acker’s New York City in 1979. In its few pages, Acker fits in overheard conversations, observations from outside a nightclub, speculation about the sexual lives of the members of the downtown arts scene, and an interrogation of how desire turns you into an insane person. Acker’s book is part of the Penguin Modern series—gorgeous short works by the greats sold for £1. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Penguin takes that same idea across the Atlantic! —Nina (excerpted from Bookish's Staff Reads)

[Maddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I Want All The Above To Be The Sun.
Lil shortie one because I’m feeling a slump coming onnnnn and this looked weird in a way that would stimulate my brain. Did it work? Who’s to say? Consensus? Weird, weird, weird weird. I don’t know if I liked it. I think I lean more towards dislike. I do know that it was very well written and definitely had things to say about sex and sexuality. I just don’t know if I fully grasp what those things were fully. Very graphic. Very off-putting. Very odd

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two in one day, I was eager! Mainly because I saw it had pictures and I knew that would make it a quick read before bed. To be honest the pictures didn’t really stand out but the text was great, it was a sort of study on sexuality in New York, first looking at a group of sex workers and then introducing us to the recurring Janey as she tackles her own sexuality, spliced in with other anecdotes from the city. It was brief, it was graphic and I think it worked.

[Lazaros Karavasilis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ρεαλιστικό, ωμό, αληθινό. Κοινώς πολύ καλό.

[David Ärlemalm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Efter en stark inledning förlorade New York City In 1979 mig. Acker är pubertal där hon söker provocera, plump där hon vill chokera. Hade förväntat mig någon annat och bättre.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was glad to read this—it’s a good puzzle piece for her other work.