Une prostituée juive de bonne famine dont le souteneur occasionnel lit Heidegger ; une fille qui fabrique des bijoux en toc et vit avec un peintre sans clientèle ; une étudiante attardée partagée entre l'indigence et la sécurité d'un mariage ennuyeux ; des artistes plus ou moins manqués en quête de galeries, de collectionneurs, de mécènes, de compagnons ou de compagnes, d'appartements, d'ateliers ; toute une faune de personnages chamailleurs, fauchés et paumés, s'accouplant et se quittant au gré des rencontres, encombrés d'animaux, d'enfants à l'abandon, échafaudant des plans baroques, ébauchant des chimères au jour le jour, sont les héros dérisoires de ces nouvelles. Tous prisonniers de la grande ville inhumaine, étouffante, tous en proie, sans le dire, aux affres de la solitude. Tama Janowitz nous fait partager les ambitions confuses, les espoirs, les déboires, les succès éphémères de ces êtres désenchantés, déracinés, avec un humour acide, une ironie douce-amère, un sens aigu de l'absurde. Ces marionnettes pathétiques, ce sont les esclaves de New York.

Esclaves de New York

Pour découvrir l'âme de Big Apple et de ses quartiers, de Staten Island à Harlem, des Queens à Broklyn en passant par Soho, Chinatown, Central Park, à travers de nombreuses photos commentées par Paul Auster, Norman Mailer, Woody Allen... Avec une sélection d'hôtels, de restaurants, de musées, etc.

New York

In this darkly funny, surprising memoir, the original "Lit Girl" and author of the era-defining Slaves of New York considers her life in and outside of New York City, from the heyday of the 1980s to her life today in a tiny upstate town that proves that fact is always stranger than fiction. With the publication of her acclaimed short story collection Slaves of New York, Tama Janowitz was crowned the Lit Girl of New York. Celebrated in rarified literary and social circles, she was hailed, alongside Mark Lindquist, Bret Easton Ellis, and Jay McInerney, as one of the original "Brat Pack" writers-a wave of young minimalist authors whose wry, urbane sensibility captured the zeitgeist of the time, propelling them to the forefront of American culture. In Scream, her first memoir, Janowitz recalls the quirky literary world of young downtown New York in the go-go 1980s and reflects on her life today far away from the city indelible to her work. As in Slaves of New York and A Certain Age, Janowitz turns a critical eye towards life, this time her own, recounting the vagaries of fame and fortune as a writer devoted to her art. Here, too, is Tama as daughter, wife, and mother, wrestling with aging, loss, and angst, both adolescent (her daughter) and middle aged (her own) as she cares for a mother plagued by dementia, battles a brother who questions her choices, and endures the criticism of a surly teenager. Filled with a very real, very personal cast of characters, Scream is an intimate, scorching memoir rife with the humor, insight, and experience of a writer with a surgeon's eye for detail, and a skill for cutting straight to the strangest parts of life.

Scream - A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction

Oryx & Crake meets Douglas Coupland. An unforgettable vision of the future of America.

 Years from now America finds itself split between the rich and the poor. The haves live in luxury within the small regions that remain unpolluted while the have-nots inhabit a toxic suburbia full of terrorism, crime and genetic mutations.

 Perhaps not all that different from today then?

 They Is Us tells the story of one family from the poor side as they go about their daily lives. Julie has a job as a summer intern at an animal laboratory. She can't resist taking home the discarded mutants and her house is filled with genetic cast offs. Her mother, Murielle, has kicked out her stepfather and now, seemingly from nowhere, finds herself subject to the attentions of multi-millionaire businessman A. J. M. Bishrop. Bishrop is only dating Murielle because he wants to get Julie's underage sister Tahnee into bed.

 Just your typical American family story.

 Set against a backdrop of increasingly invasive technology, growing pollution and the President of the USA's impending gay marriage (to be broadcast live across the nation) They Is Us features a cast of unforgettable characters that will stick in your mind long after you finish the book.

 Tama Janowitz has written a prophetic novel which is funny, and frequently hilarious, but is so uncannily believable that it is chilling to read. This really could be the future.

They Is Us

Plus que tout autre ville au monde, New York est la cité des images : les ouvriers au sommet de gratte-ciel, le Queen Mary arrivant sur Manhattan, les joggers dans Central Park, les taxis jaunes sur la 5e Avenue... font désormais partie de notre mémoire collective. Avec plus de 800 photographies sur la ville la plus photogénique au monde, ce livre exprime toutes les facettes de New York : quartiers, cultures, ethnies, styles défilent sous nos yeux. On découvre ainsi le nouveau MoMA, on "écoute" du jazz dans Harlem, on visite les galeries de Chelsea, on prend un café dans Greenwich Village, on fait le tour des musées, parcs et restaurants, on va à Broadway, à Brooklyn, à Chinatown... Une introduction amusée et pleine d'esprit de la romancière américaine Tama Janowitz, des commentaires signés Paul Auster, Cecil Beaton, Duke Ellington, Martin Scorsese... ainsi qu'un index des meilleurs hôtels, restaurants et musées, font de ce livre-guide un incontournable sur la ville la plus dynamique du monde.

Livres