I’ve Been Reading: Area Code 212
Tama Janowitz, if you haven’t heard of her, is a novelist who, as far as I can surmise, accidentally achieved it-girl status for awhile back in the 80s, because she happened to make friends with Andy Warhol and the two of them, plus another woman, had weekly ‘blind date’ dinners where each of them had to bring a likely date for the others (none of these dates ever worked out). After Warhol’s death, Janowitz faded from view, and it seems that whenever she opens her mouth nowadays, she pisses everyone off. She’s kind of Sarah Silverman-ish with the un-P.C. comments, although I don’t think Janowitz does it to provoke; it just doesn’t occur to her that anyone would bother to be offended.
I recently read a fat book of short, humorous essays by Janowitz, Area Code 212. The essays focus mainly on life in New York as a semi-famous but not particularly fashionable person, tiny dogs, ferrets, Janowitz’s adopted Chinese daughter, Prospect Park, Andy Warhol, unmanageable hair, and food. I thought most of them were great fun, although I think the entire book could be condensed into five long developed essays – a lot of these are repetitious and many of them blurbs that don’t seem to be at all thought out. I’m pretty sure Janowitz would be a lot of fun to hang out with – though she was in the in-crowd at a hot time in NYC history, she mainly just exclaims about all the free fancy food she got to eat.
Area Code 212 is aptly named; Janowitz seems to be one of those people who came straight to NYC as soon as possible, and then never left it. The above list of topics could also serve as her bio. Still, if you have to narrow your entire scope to a single topic, New York – sprawling, ever-evolving – is a good one. New York is also one of those places that was always way more fun right before you got there. I am forever jealous of the many phases of its past, and wishing I had arrived in any earlier decade. Although, no matter when I came to NYC, I’d likely shy as far away from the scene as I do now, so it would probably make no difference.
