By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee

by Tama Janowitz

From the author of Slaves of New York and The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group, this satire in the all-too-rare genre of Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One tells a compelling story of the sex lives of people and invertebrates at the end of America's 20th century.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

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

[Libby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't especially like Longfellow so I guess a book containing so many references to The Song of Hiawatha was never really going to float my boat. I found the arbitrary footnotes and haphazard allusions to poetry and scientific facts awkward and irritating, the whole book was directionless, shallow, pointless and worst of all not funny in the slightest. Meh.

[Alvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't swear it, but I think this is an homage to Ivy Compton-Burnett, the famously camp British family novelist. Even if it isn't, it's quite a hoot. Splendidly diverting.

[Ayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely adored this book! That it was so charming, so funny, so familiar to me in some sort of ineffable way came as a complete, and so, a wonderful, surprise.

[Gigi Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVED THIS BOOK. amazing writing, story had enough momentum while still allowing for utter silliness. reminded me of TKAMB for some reason. love these characters.

[Havilah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went through a period where I loved reading Tama Janowitz's books. This book is quirky and goofy, but fun. I read it while I was travelling through England. I actually bought it at an english bookstore in France and read it while I was in Bath, England. Total fun and silliness. I totally connected to the trashiness of this story :)

[Helen]

Awful book, awful writer - avoid at all costs!!!! 3 books for $30 it's not worth the suffering of trying to read this

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhausting! But, RIYL Oh! by Mary Robison, which I do, very much.