The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group

by Tama Janowitz

Pamela Trowel, a single New Yorker, finds her bad luck changing when a young boy follows her home one day, and soon she and the child are setting off on a zany cross-country adventure. Reissue.

Genres: Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Adult Fiction, Contemporary

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

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

[mark monday · Rating 2 out of 5]

perhaps the best things i can say about this one is that it has a sweet-natured, compassionate perspective on humanity and has no fears about appearing goofy and whimsical; perhaps the worst thing i could say about this one is Sometimes Whimsy Goes Too Fuckin Far And It Turns Into The Worst, Most Sickly-Sweet, Precious Little Treacle-Doily Of A Novel That I Want To Just Rip To Shreds.

[Alex]

Fucking awful

[Xenja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro trovato in un bookcrossing nel parco. Di Tama Janowitz, alla fine degli anni Ottanta, ho molto amato i famosi Schiavi di New York. Questo romanzo non eguaglia la sua prima e più famosa opera; però qui si ritrova lo spirito beffardo, la satira pungente, lo sguardo acuto che indaga ogni assurdità del nostro mondo, e senza censure si scatena sulla società newyorkese con la sua eterna lotta quotidiana per il successo, sul femminismo, sul politically correct e via dicendo, inscenando una lunga e rocambolesca avventura, bizzarra, surreale, divertente, un po' almodovariana. Ma forse un po’ troppo bizzarra, e certamente troppo lunga.
Strano il titolo italiano: come l’originale The male cross-dresser support group sia diventato Pamela e i suoi vestiti, considerato che nel romanzo i vestiti non hanno nessun rilievo, è un mistero.

[Brian Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is laugh-out-loud funny. I actually laughed so hard reading it that I had to get up and leave a class. No, it wasn't assigned reading; we were in World Literature, and I wasn't participating in the dicussion of "Candide."

Anyway, you have to read it. This very dark comedy is so bizarre you won't believe anyone could actually dream this story up. All about a lonely, misunderstood New York woman who works at a hunting magazine.
She lives a solitary and dull existence until a very strange little boy follows her home from a Ray's Pizza and refuses to leave. What else can she do but take him in?

The story takes off into flights of ridiculous farce, involving a lovable Affenpinscher, faulty electrical wiring, a flooding ladies room, and a severed head found on the side of the road, among other unlikely plot twists. Throughout, the relationship between the woman and the boy grows into something that is truly sweet and real, without being cloying or sentimental in the least.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

weird... who carries around a human head in their trunk?

[Judi · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a screwball! Pamela Trowell can't do anything without it resulting in huge repercussions and usually involving the law - like go to the post office, get fired or taking in a young stray boy. Even driving to Maine is a whole new experience seen through her eyes. I got quite a laugh as she tries to teach her "new son" (she found him) the ethical ways when she herself is somewhat debased. As is usual with good humor, she speaks a lot of truth. Silly as it is, I laughed hardest over a scene involving a decapitated human head. (Why is this so funny? 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag and Crazy in Alabama made me laugh too!)

My only disappointment with this book (and I say this so that you won't make the same mistake) is that the title is such a small part of this whole story, yet, due to the title and synopsis on the back of the book, I kept waiting for her to dress like a man. Yeah sure, the male-cross-dresser-support-group comes into play, but it is only one incident among the many and very much towards the end. Pamela really does run into quite a few problems before she resorts to dressing like a man. And even that she screws up!

[Stuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a disappointing follow up to SLAVES OF NEW YORK, a novel I found quite charming, but in this piece Janowitz has become overly precious and too quirky for her own good- to the point where it seems like everyone in New York is unbearably freakish and only the most absurd and vaguely disgusting things can happen. There's also a vague sense throughout the book that it's trying, desperately, to shock you and that only makes its flat humor flatter. It's also not helped by the fact that Pamela, while sympathetic, isn't much of a charmer as heroines of novels go and she's a far cry from Eleanor in SLAVES OF NEW YORK, who I found delightful despite all her quirks and neurosis.

[Emily Mittelmark]

there is one scene in the middle of the book that excecutes literary slapstick better than i have ever experienced... even a year after i read it, if i need to laugh i think of what janowitz was describing and i start cracking up... VERY entertaining.

[Clodia Metelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarre and picaresque story of a hapless woman's odyssey with a small boy called Abdhul whom she adopted in a somewhat unorthodox manner. Along the way there are encounters with severed heads and affenpinscher puppies. Shrewd social comedy with a dose of the surreal and the absurd.

[Murat Aydogdu · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried, but couldn't read this. I gave up halfway.

I have read "Slaves of New York" ages ago, and very much enjoyed reading it. (I would recommend it.) This one, though, is poorly conceived, unfunny, and mildly irritating.

[Alvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Janowitz! It's got it all: social satire, feminist message, lovably wacky characters, and hilariously off beat situations. Just terrific through and through.

[Janell P · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read it so long ago. I think it was funny.

[Sara Schraeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know it's a mess but just I love this book. Parts of it are unbelievably funny, all of it is bizarre. The characters are so endearing. Even the awful dog. And the head.

[Richard Jespers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is purely for fun, a silly romp through the mind of the narrator, who lives in New York in the early 1990s. Silly, though it is, I couldn’t put it down!

[Michael Alan Grapin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pamela Trowel is a neurotic woman living in New York. She considers herself a plain Jane and seems to attract damaged men who are emotionally challenged or sexually perverted. One day she offers pizza to an apparently neglected young boy of indeterminate age called Abdul who then follows her home. She decides to keep him much like a stray dog and they make a life together. After being fired from her job and inadvertently destroying the offices and electrocuting her bosses she and Abdul escape New York ahead of the police. It's difficult to root for Pamela as she makes one bad decision after another from keeping a severed head that they find by the side of the road to burning down a house for inheritance money. The story is populated with weird stereotypes and almost everyone seems to be some level of disaster but it's not boring.

[Erica · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is probably one of the worst books I've ever read. I almost wish I could go negative stars on the review. The protagonist is a young woman suffering one disaster after another and the endplates claim we should find this book "fiercely funny." In addition to one miserable experience after another the lead character suffers through, we are supposed to find humor in lots of discussion of pissing, shitting, vomiting, etc. How about graphic description of rotting body parts? Pretty funny right? There is not a laugh, chuckle, smile, or grin in this entire book! And then, the "piece de resistance" of this novel is the author referring to a transgender waitress as "it." Some fun. . .

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Screwball comedy for the late 1980s. Our heroine is barely in control of her own life when she is "adopted" by a streetkid and her boss tries to seduce her. She is fired from her job and sets out to find what has happened to her estranged father. Lots of crazy business with a decapitated head found on the freeway etc. Finally loses the boy and begins to make a new life as a man but is caught out. Just when you think that it is all over, you realise there is still hope for this madcap.

[Cynthia Jubinsky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful waste of time. I struggled to even finish it but held on hoping it would all come together. What comes to mind regarding the plot: jump the shark. Take four to six disparate ideas and turn it into a non-cohesive novel and then describe it as “mad cap” or comic. No, it was self indulgent for the author and editor. Blargh!

[Neha Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really weird and bizarre humor , pretty dark and crazy , and nothing to do with the title but I did really enjoy reading it !

[Josh Folan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think we should be really worried there are human brains out there that can come up with shit like this out of thin air, but I’m glad this one uses its power for good.

[Hannah Ritvo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not worth the read

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

""

[Leah L Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. American Jews really do write the funniest books. It often had me gasping or laughing out loud. Admittedly, the severed head was a bit too much (icky and improbable), but the rest was epic.
I do so love characters who live shitty lives. I will never regret picking up this hilarious action-packed book, and I am sure I will again in the near future.

[PauL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it twice.

[Fthomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

in traditional Tama, funny and quirky, fun read