The Fran Lebowitz Reader

by Fran Lebowitz

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

From the gem that is Fran Lebowitz, this volume brings together Metropolitan Life and Social Studies, two culturally relevant narratives with that token sense of humor that is both hilarious and stark. At times a rant, at times an observation, this is socially relevant commentary from a voice we love to hear.

In the vein of Lebowitz's acclaimed Netflix limited series, Pretend It's a City—The Fran Lebowitz Reader brings together two of the famed author's bestsellers, Metropolitan Life and Social Studies.

In "elegant, finely honed prose" (The Washington Post Book World), Lebowitz limns the vicissitudes of contemporary urban life—its fads, trends, crazes, morals, and fashions. By turns ironic, facetious, deadpan, sarcastic, wry, wisecracking, and waggish, Fran Lebowitz is always wickedly entertaining.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679761808
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/08/1994
Edition description:	1st Vintage Books ed
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	51,571
Product dimensions:	5.18(w) x 7.98(h) x 0.93(d)

About the Author

Fran Lebowitz still lives in New York City, as she does not believe that she would be allowed to live anywhere else.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

October 27, 1951

Place of Birth:

New Jersey

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

On METROPOLITAN LIFE
"Hilarious...an unlikely and perhaps alarming combination of Mary Hartman and Mary McCarthy.... To a dose of Huck Finn add some Lenny Bruce, Oscar Wilde and Alexis de Tocqueville, a dash of cabdriver, an assortment of puns, minced jargon, and top it off with smarty pants." —The New York Times

"Her humor made me laugh aloud and call friends to read passages to them." —Newsweek

On SOCIAL STUDIES
"Right on the mark.... Among the things she hates this time...baggage-claim areas, high tech, after-shave lotion, adults who roller skate, children who speak French, or anyone who is unduly tan." —Newsweek

"Unique.... Lebowitz offers vocational guides for aspiring heiresses, popes, empresses; manuals for landlords; guidance to the rich who wish to meet the poor." —Vogue

Editorial Reviews

“A great read.” –Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC’s Tonight Show

On METROPOLITAN LIFE
"Hilarious...an unlikely and perhaps alarming combination of Mary Hartman and Mary McCarthy.... To a dose of Huck Finn add some Lenny Bruce, Oscar Wilde and Alexis de Tocqueville, a dash of cabdriver, an assortment of puns, minced jargon, and top it off with smarty pants." —The New York Times

"Her humor made me laugh aloud and call friends to read passages to them." —Newsweek

On SOCIAL STUDIES
"Right on the mark.... Among the things she hates this time...baggage-claim areas, high tech, after-shave lotion, adults who roller skate, children who speak French, or anyone who is unduly tan." —Newsweek

"Unique.... Lebowitz offers vocational guides for aspiring heiresses, popes, empresses; manuals for landlords; guidance to the rich who wish to meet the poor." —Vogue

From the Publisher

Lebowitz’s humorous pieces from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s are still funny, despite some dated references, and can even seem contemporary. Her voice is clear and incisive, her reading quick but not too quick, though she rushes the endings of a few sentences and swallows some words. But she seems an unpracticed reader, at times giving her own lines awkward or incorrect emphasis, and her comic timing is sometimes off. Her tone has the clipped, emphatic, mannered precision associated with nerds, such as the Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy, and her “r’s” are hard enough to crack walnuts (“literachurrrrr”). But there can be no substitute for the author’s own wry, acerbic tone in reading her own sardonic and misanthropic prose. W.M. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2012 - AudioFile

Lebowitz’s humorous pieces from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s are still funny, despite some dated references, and can even seem contemporary. Her voice is clear and incisive, her reading quick but not too quick, though she rushes the endings of a few sentences and swallows some words. But she seems an unpracticed reader, at times giving her own lines awkward or incorrect emphasis, and her comic timing is sometimes off. Her tone has the clipped, emphatic, mannered precision associated with nerds, such as the Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy, and her “r’s” are hard enough to crack walnuts (“literachurrrrr”). But there can be no substitute for the author’s own wry, acerbic tone in reading her own sardonic and misanthropic prose. W.M. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2012 - AudioFile