Scream

Forever the misfit, tama janowitz feels like screamingIn her first book since 2005, Tama Janowitz examines the events that led her through the 1980s to where she is now: (almost) broke, (almost) divorced, attempting to raise a daughter, taking care of her ailing mother, peacemaking with her eccentric father, and learning the strange mythos and culture of upstate New York, which, while only a few hours north of New York City, might as well be on a different planet.Once declared New York City’s literary “It Girl”—hanging out with the likes of Andy Warhol and Lou Reed, partying at Studio 54, and coming of age alongside contemporary, edgy writers who together with Tama were deemed the “Literary Brat Pack”—she has always been an original. She is a writer with many books under her belt, and her groundbreaking short-story collection Slaves of New York ushered forward a style that became emblematic of a New York City packed with sex, drugs, and urban grittiness. Tama left the glamour and glitz of the 1980s behind to be a wife, mother, and poodle wrangler—only to find herself still searching for a sense of purpose.Her traversal across memory, time, and place in Scream—moving frantically back and forth between the city and the country, the eighties and today—to uncover that purpose is a testament to her precision and capacity for soul searching. Crafted with humor, irony, and self-awareness, Scream is Tama Janowitz at her most candid and straightforward as she weaves memoir with her acutely unconventional voice.