A Certain Age

by Tama Janowitz

When Florence Collins sets out for a weekend in the Hamptons, her life spirals into a disastrous series of mishaps that include an unwanted night-time visit from her friend's husband, the near drowning of their daughter, and her expulsion from the premises. Thus begins this tragi-comic novel about the sad plight of a woman on the make in Manhattan.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Literary Fiction, New York, Contemporary, Novels, Womens

Paperback

First published June 17, 1999

About the author

Tama Janowitz is an American novelist and a short story writer. The 2005 September/October issue of Pages magazine listed her as one of the four "brat pack" authors, along with Bret Easton Ellis, Mark Lindquist and Jay McInerney.

Born in San Francisco, California to a psychiatrist father and literature professor mother who divorced when she was ten, Janowitz moved to the East Coast of the United States to attend Barnard College and the Columbia University School of the Arts and started writing about life in New York City, where she had settled down.

She socialized with Andy Warhol and became well-known in New York's literary and social circles. Her 1986 collection of short stories, Slaves of New York brought her wider fame. Slaves of New York was adapted into a 1989 film directed by James Ivory and starring Bernadette Peters. Janowitz wrote the screenplay and also appeared, playing Peters' friend.

Janowitz has published seven novels, one collection of stories and one work of non-fiction. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Tim Hunt, and their adopted daughter.

Reviews

[Puma Perl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't great literature but it is a book I return to over and over again. I finally figured out why. Originally published in 1999, it presents a cast of callow, unlikeable characters, not a pure heart in the bunch. It is a satirical look at the false values and materialism of our culture. The reason I keep going back to it is because, slowly but surely, the island of Manhattan has turned into Jamowitz's landscape. Unaffordable to anyone but the rich, and lines around the block for $12 ice cream cones with ingredients like bacon, apricot pralines, and Vietnamese coffee grinds. Since it's all come to fruition, I guess I can finally stop rereading it.

[Mei · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. It's a retelling of sorts of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. The main character is a borderline sociopathic, shopaholic, shallow victim whose life slowly goes from bad to worse following a Hamptons weekend at a "friend's" home. I don't know why I like this book so much -- the characters are so flat and unsympathetic -- but I really do. I also love Slaves of New York, my copy is old and dog-eared.

[Heather G · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a bit trashy with some dark humor (nothing violent, just depressing). I read this in my late 20s and for some reason the book really stuck with me. I've reread it a few times and keep a copy on my shelf.
What happens to the main character is scary and you feel it, even tho she's unlikeable.

[Tal Goretsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrific novel about a New York woman in her 30s who starts feeling the social implications of lacking a rich husband. Her downward spiral within the Hamptons Jitney set while she tries to snap up a suitable man is funny and sad. The writing is so good that the story unfurls like a movie, and I could actually hear the Saint Etienne album Good Humour in my head while reading it.

[Chrisolu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably my fav book so far this year.

[Aja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I thought this would be a load of junk, but it's magnificently written, raw and hideous. This book does a fantastic job of illustrating through and through exactly why I left New York City and never looked back. Granted, I have never, will never be as vain and vacuous as Florence and her friends but at the same time, there is so much truth in the way the writer describes how people in NYC lose interests in everything you say after you get out two sentences, unless it is in regards to themselves. I never liked that about the city. I found it difficult to make friends and to scratch the surface. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a try, but this book is enough to make me feel like I made the right decision. Also the money spent made me absolutely nauseous and the combination of alcohol and drugs, has the effect of painting a hideous picture. A classic and cautionary tale, not all that glitters and that vanity will always be the death of you ...

[Nia Forrester · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scary book. If you ever lived in NYC, you will recognize Florence, the main protagonist in this novel - the aging party girl living on the fringes of high society, hoping to bag a wealthy husband who will bankroll her aspirations to become one of the indolent upper classes. The downward spiral of this character as she embarks upon this wrongheaded pursuit will haunt you. Not profound in the traditional sense - it's certainly very easy to read, but it raises interesting questions about status, success, wealth and how women are valued, and value themselves after a certain age.

[Dena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book a few years ago when I was in college. I loved it... it made me want to move to New York and experience life there.

[Enigma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this novel so much. I read it years ago but i reread it every now and then. I liked the description very much I can feel the cool air coming from the a/c on my skin!

[Esther Hardwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book last year, as recommended by my Estonian colleague. She warned me in her cool accent, that it was a 'trashy book' (her words), but she loved it. She was right. I did struggle in the beginning to keep the characters straight and as I got to the 3rd chapter, found myself re-reading the 1st chapter, to get my bearings. I felt bad for the main character and travelled the downward spiral with her. It's definitely not a 'feel good' type of book. I've also never been to NY but could visualize the grittiness of certain scenes and people that were painted. I know it's commonly compared to as a modern take on the Wharton book, so I will put that on my 'to read' list, for later.

[christa · Rating 3 out of 5]

just another book about a social climbing woman who can't balance her check book. (not that i can balance my check book, but this isn't about me). i want to think this book is sattire, but i fear that 90 percent of its readers won't see it that way. think "lily bart" in "house of mirth."

[Madeleine Fix-hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an eerie walk through a certain social milieu in NYC. A modern day Victorian woman's fall from grace. It's a disconcerting book overall. The protagonist is not likeable - the book makes you walk through the disaster of her life and shallow choices. I found myself grasping & hoping to be able to change tracks and hang out more with the other, more likeable, characters who enter and exit throughout the plot. Not to be. This is a pretty grueling book. You will not feel particularly good after finishing it. If you don't feel so hot about things, the book's probably done it's job.

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Feel very hit and miss with Tama's books and this one just wasn't good. I think the further she gets from the 80s postmodernists, the less interesting her writing is, as horrible as that might be to say. This was just about an average white woman in New York and her snobbish friends. There was nothing particularly bad about it, it just wasn't anything exciting, new or thought-provoking. I think Tama wrote so well early on in her career, and even though her writing is still incredibly witty in this, there is nothing phenomenal that the text wants to say and it just bored me.

I've got a few more books of Tama's to read and I hope they sway more to what Slaves of New York was like rather than this.

[Deepdish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book, well written, could not put it down.
I would like to read Tama Janowitz’ s another books as well. Sure, next one would be Slaves of New York.

[Ronald Wise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I suspect a lot of the reported humor in this book went by me undetected, I found this novel compelling. I never knew what to expect, as I never felt that a satisfactory ending was guaranteed... or even expected. A review quote on the dust cover said it was hilarious. The characters and situations were often Seinfeldian, but I suspect there was some designer-label humor that I didn't get.

This book was first published in 1999, but is obviously about the 1980s - no cell phones, no Internet, but plenty of drugs (crack, no less) and upper class greed that took me back to the Reagan Era. The narrator's self-destructive attempts to escape her dire realities - getting old, inheritance squandered, and no rich marriage prospects in sight - elicited some haunting flashbacks of similarly unsuccesful escapist strategies of my own, and of others I knew from that decade.

[Becky Kimmel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful lead character, I found so little sympathy for her and her stupidity. Terrible commentary on NYC although likely many truths exposed. Yuk.

[Jacklynn Andretti · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there was a book written for the definition of pity party, it would be this. The excruciating journey kept me stitched to the pages. I just kept thinking of the black mirror episode, “Nosedive”.

[Charlotte Dickens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Tama Janowitz presented a myriad of details about life in New York City, which was the best aspect of this book. It was a satire, and it certainly shows how a woman was wasting her life trying to find a rich man to marry without developing anything within herself to sustain her. The ultimate foolishness displayed by Florence was that she completely ignored such a man who was in love with her because she did not realize that he was well-to-do. I grew very impatient with the vacuous Florence and reading of her caused me to feel depressed as it went on--I guess it was the unending bad moves she made, her utter lack of character and morality. It would have been nice if there had been something redeeming about her other than her good looks, which seemed so wasted upon such a person. I know that Janowitz intended for the reader to lack sympathy with such a character and at that she succeeded. I recognize the talent of the writer, and since I have not read her book, The Slaves of New York, for which she was more noted, I feel as if I am being a little too hard on her. She succeeds with what she obviously intended to do, but it was not what I would call an enjoyable read---certainly not everything has to be fun to be good, however.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and intelligent re-imagining of "House of Mirth." Janowitz's characteristic oddball wit is in good form here. Aside from being enjoyable, "A Certain Age: A Novel," in the tradition of Wharton and Austen, provides mostly successful social commentary on the lives of certain women at the beginning of the 21st century. Recommended.

[Alvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Janowitz has a great comic voice, but here it seems forced. Rather than starting with a hilarious character, I think she started this book with a premise about the evils of materialism. The whole thing seemed didactic.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst novels I've ever read. The main character is completely unlikeable and depraved. All of the characters are treated contemptuously by the author. I have no idea why I finished it!

[LG · Rating 2 out of 5]

It starts out light. The character is obsessed with money and status. Because of this, she compromises herself and dismisses the people who really like her. I read to the end to see if she would wake up.

[Mari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated it - a bad update of "House of Mirth"

[Colleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of those books I'm pretty sure I read, but is so indistinctive as to leave no imprint in my brain.

[Lesa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never have I wanted to slap someone as badly as I wanted to slap Florence. What a waste of time.

[Ronny De Schepper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het boek is in de derde persoon geschreven en ik hoop uit de grond van mijn hart dat het niet autobiografisch is, maar men kan er niet omheen dat Janowitz nauwelijks ouder is dan het hoofdpersonage en omgekeerd is zij (Florence Collins) evenzeer geobsedeerd door geld als de auteur zelf. In het New York waarin men makkelijk dat van die andere brat pack-auteurs kan herkennen (Bret Easton Ellis en Jay McInerney b.v.) heeft alles een prijskaartje. Een sieraad of een meubelstuk, maar ook een man of een vrouw. De "gevaarlijke leeftijd" is 32, zeker als de jonge vrouw er haar hele erfenis heeft doorgejaagd. Ze moet dus dringend een rijke man vinden. En dat is niet makkelijk. Mee naar bed gaan wel, maar trouwen! Hoe ging dat liedje ook alweer? "Alle leuke jongens willen vrijen, maar stadhuis is er niet bij." Daar komt nog bij dat Florence zelf ook geen makkelijke tante is, die zich ondanks haar steeds verslechterende toestand blijft vastklampen aan status en uiterlijke schijn. Enfin, hoe het afloopt, moet je zelf maar lezen, tenzij je het boek al bij voorbaat opzij legt omwille van wat hier staat. Ik kan je zeker geen ongelijk geven, maar ik moet toegeven: eens je in het verhaal bent gestapt, wil je blijven doorgaan. Vandaar de drie sterren, waar ik er eerst maar twee wou geven...

[raxit · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was beyond sufficiently entertaining and somewhat thought-provoking. however, my main and major criticism is that there is TOO MUCH RAPE.
some would argue that rape scenes have no place in works of art. i believe it can be done tastefully. in this book it serves as commentary as to how sexual assault is hardly taken seriously, and blame is even deflected back at the victim. how, in the world of the rich, violent sexual crimes take place in secrecy, normalized, and are hardly thought about. but it just KEEPS HAPPENING.
we get it! nobody cares, including the victim herself, that she is getting taken advantage of! THERE IS NO REASON WHY YOU NEED TO PORTRAY IT HAPPENING FIVE TIMES. i can only think of one time where it actually served a narrative purpose...
other than that i liked it. solid book

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

More moral decay from Janowitz, this book more reminiscent of 'Young Hearts Crying'. Florence is a desperate single woman in New York and the Hamptons, trying to find a new rich husband as if her life depended on it. Devoid of morals or boundaries, she finds herself being sexually assaulted, but with so little feminist consciousness, that she can neither control the situation, or repair the damage done. This American moral vacuum, after the collapse of religion and ethics, is an interesting study on the foundation on which modern right wing fascist politics has grown in New York. So clever about art and fashion, so lacking in moral compass...

[Nina]

This book was pretty bad by 2021 standards (and in general?), but there was a point midway through when I realized it has a ton in common with "My Year of Rest and Relaxation," a 2019 book that I think I liked. It's the story of a beautiful, wealthy person's epic self-destruction. You can't put it down, and then you feel weird about that. But unlike "Rest and Relaxation," the writing in this book is cringe-worthy. Certain descriptions of things were just...repeated randomly, and the word "scuttled" was used a dozen too many times.

But sometimes you just want to tear through a trashy novel.

[Ashna Prakash · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Certain Age is one of those few books that makes you reflect on the purposeless-ness of life. It’s uncanny ability to mean nothing and everything at the same time. Following the life of 32 year old Florence Collins as she desperately grasps for the rich, suitable, husband of her dreams, Janowitz’s novel depicts how quickly the four walls of your world can disappear.