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The Cubical City
This finely crafted novel provides a memorable glimpse of life and love in New York in the 1920s.
Janet Flanner, who as Genêt wrote a fort-nightly “Letter from Paris” for the New Yorker magazine for almost fifty years, has recently told of her experiences in Paris in her widely acclaimed book Paris Was Yesterday. Here in her only published novel, The Cubical City, she provides an extraordinary—and memorable—glimpse of the young artist in New York during the Jazz Age. In an Afterword written for this new edition she discusses the writer’s craft and her early schooling in and dedication to it.
The story concerns the young, talented, and liberated Delia Poole who, after emerging from the Middle West and after a period of struggle, is enjoying success as a costume designer for New York musical reviews. In love with New York, established in her own studio, and enjoying life, she finds her life complicated by Paul, the impecunious suitor, and by the death of her father and her mother’s removal to New York.
Janet Flanner, who as Genêt wrote a fort-nightly “Letter from Paris” for the New Yorker magazine for almost fifty years, has recently told of her experiences in Paris in her widely acclaimed book Paris Was Yesterday. Here in her only published novel, The Cubical City, she provides an extraordinary—and memorable—glimpse of the young artist in New York during the Jazz Age. In an Afterword written for this new edition she discusses the writer’s craft and her early schooling in and dedication to it.
The story concerns the young, talented, and liberated Delia Poole who, after emerging from the Middle West and after a period of struggle, is enjoying success as a costume designer for New York musical reviews. In love with New York, established in her own studio, and enjoying life, she finds her life complicated by Paul, the impecunious suitor, and by the death of her father and her mother’s removal to New York.
440 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1974
About the author
Janet Flanner
58 books46 followersJanet Tyler Flanner was an American writer and journalist who served as the Paris correspondent of The New Yorker magazine from 1925 until she retired in 1975.
She wrote under the pen name "Genêt". and published a single novel, "The Cubical City", set in New York City.
She wrote under the pen name "Genêt". and published a single novel, "The Cubical City", set in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 14, 2016
Janet Flanner is best known for having been The New Yorker's Paris correspondent (back when Paris was a place that one corresponded about) and this is her sole novel. Written in 1926, my edition is from a mid-70s "Lost American Fiction" paperback series from the rather generically named Popular Library.
The book covers a few years in the life of a successful young theater designer and her romantic entanglements, her best female friend and her mother who moves from Ohio to Greenwich Village upon being widowed. We are firmly in the jazz age and she describes her generation as having been "born under the sign of the saxophone."
Sexual freedom for women seems to have been a topic about which Flanner felt strongly because she occasionally puts speeches in the mouth of her main character that don't quite sound like dialog. In general, though, the book is funny, well written and the characters are intriguing. Her writing adheres to the very grammatically rigorous and graceful New Yorker style and doesn't hit any extremes but there are flashes of Dos Passos at times.
After an early marriage of convenience, Flanner met the women with whom she would spend the next 50 years - online sources tell me the pair were represented in Djuna Barnes' "Ladies Almanack."
The book covers a few years in the life of a successful young theater designer and her romantic entanglements, her best female friend and her mother who moves from Ohio to Greenwich Village upon being widowed. We are firmly in the jazz age and she describes her generation as having been "born under the sign of the saxophone."
Sexual freedom for women seems to have been a topic about which Flanner felt strongly because she occasionally puts speeches in the mouth of her main character that don't quite sound like dialog. In general, though, the book is funny, well written and the characters are intriguing. Her writing adheres to the very grammatically rigorous and graceful New Yorker style and doesn't hit any extremes but there are flashes of Dos Passos at times.
After an early marriage of convenience, Flanner met the women with whom she would spend the next 50 years - online sources tell me the pair were represented in Djuna Barnes' "Ladies Almanack."
February 15, 2015
Janet Flanner is one of my favorite writers (check out "Paris Was Yesterday" which is a collection of her reporting from Paris for the New Yorker), but this novel was only of interest because she wrote it. Since she herself said that it persuaded her she had no gift for fiction, you may want to take her advice and skip it. NOT a great read, I must admit, but as a first-hand account from a successful young working woman in New York City in the 1920s, it is quite an interesting document. Can't really suggest that you plow through it, but I am glad I finally did.
May 3, 2021
In the afterword, Janet Flanner writes: “writing fiction is not my gift.” And it wasn’t. The Cubicle City is not up to the height of her Genêt dispatches. But it’s also frustrating because Flanner’s turns of phrase and insight are present, and beautiful, but swallowed in her fiction unease.
March 23, 2017
I wasn't really a fan of the style of writing but that's a matter of personal taste. It is worth reading though if you're interested in a female perspective account of life in the 20s and an examination of social/sexual mores and the double standard with no actual sex taking place in the text.
June 25, 2013
A Feminist Great Gatsby? A fascinating, lyrical, and unique look at a working woman's life and loves in NY in the 1920's. Even though the author, later in life, did not think it was a particularly good novel, I found it riveting. If you are a fan of Djuna Barnes or Tess Slessinger, I would highly recommend this. I've never read anything quite like it.
May 12, 2008
Melancholy and modernist. Janet Flanner writes surprisingly snarky prose, with a truly original style. Quite good! And, I know enough about her life to know much of this was culled from personal experience. Definitely recommended.
August 8, 2008
arch, self-consciously literary, and totally boring. you can smell "new yorker" magazine on this one, 3 or 4 blocks away.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews