Slaves of New York (short story)

"Slaves of New York" is a collection of short stories by Tama Janowitz. Its premise is that finding an apartment in Manhattan is so expensive and hard to do that people in the fringes of the art scene, both male and female, end up with undesirable partners simply to have a place to live. Several stories feature Eleanor, who lives with a psychologically abusive visual artist whose work is obviously derivative of cartoons. The title story was published in The New Yorker.

The book catapulted Janowitz to fame and led to several appearances on David Letterman's late-late show, as well as advertisements for Amaretto and other products. However, as Janowitz said in interview and her 2016 memoir, Scream, it did not earn her significant money on its own.

In 1989, the book was adapted into a film version by Janowitz and the producer-director team of Merchant Ivory. The movie starred Bernadette Peters as Eleanor and featured a small role for Janowitz herself.

Bibliography

• Slaves of New York, Crown Publishers, 1986, ISBN 978-0-517-56107-2; Washington Square Press, 1987, ISBN 978-0-671-63678-4; Simon and Schuster, 1991, ISBN 978-0-671-74524-0

• Movie on imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098347/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1