The Fran Lebowitz Reader

Fran is the aunt in New York City that I wish I had. It was Netflix that did it to me. I watched her in Scorcese's "Pretend It's a City" and found her humour charming. She lives in her own tiny world while adoring the enormous size of New York City around her. No computer, no cellphone, no more writing since the 1990s, just a talk circuit. She does travel a bit to talk elsewhere, including internationally, but I don't get the sense that she enjoys it all that much. Mostly she just wants to stay home and sleep in, surrounded by her 10,000+ books. I can relate.

Fran was in the right place at the right time, chumming with a number of other 1970s icons in New York's art scene, which she has pointed out was very small at the time so it was show more easy to know everyone. She was the Dorothy Parker of the set, never a star player but an interesting bit figure who Was There. She did obtain some personal fame through the published works collected here. What's most relevant about these essays to Fran's story is that they were how she earned her living in her early twenties and thirties. Writing does not seem to have been a strong passion for her, but it was something she could do, it paid the bills, and it was a whole sight better than some of the other options. Reading these today should not be an exercise in seeking lasting wisdom or high comedy, else it's sure to disappoint. Think of them as comprising a dressed up personal memoir, capturing the topics she had on her mind as a young person in that time and place.

I'm more enamoured with the Fran I know from recent YouTube interview videos than the one who wrote these pages; 70-ish in the 20s, vs. 20-ish in the 70s (copyright Fran). I wish I knew her well enough to drop her a text. No good, she has no cellphone. A handwritten letter then, just to ask how she's doing. show less

I love Fran Lebowitz but this audiobook tended to drag in parts because her monotone, which is great in short spurts, aggravated me. That doesn't mean it wasn't funny in many parts because it was. I especially loved her diet tips (in a word, smoke a lot) and dealing with realtors as you try to get an apartment in NY. At any rate, these essays are from the 90s and the funniest thing I've heard her say was quite recently when she said, "You don't know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump." Truer words were never spoken.

Only about halfway through and already I feel like this will be a DNF for me, or at least something I won't view too favorably in hindsight. This was sold to me as an essay collection, but these pieces seem much more like extended jokes than essays. And, of course, as everyone else has noted, the collection feels aggressively dated. Part of why I say "extended jokes" is because many of them rely on some sort of cultural set-up that someone, in the time, would likely have absorbed automatically just by living in New York, but that has been completely lost to history. Unfortunately, there is never enough context provided to remedy this defect, nor is the prose itself engaging or witty enough to regularly stand on its own.

The long and the show more short is that unless you are from Ms. Lebowitz's era, or have extensive knowledge of the cultural mores of the era, I'd not recommend this particular reader. show less

These vignettes are very much anchored in time and space. Some made me laugh, some seemed quaint and others yet were quite dull. The author's acerbic wit can certainly be entertaining but I think I would rather have a compendium of her critiques - these mini-essays lacked substance (although I doubt they are meant to be anything but passing observations). While I'm glad I read the book, I doubt that it will stay with me much.

I love Fran Lebowitz - I saw her on Netflix’s Pretend it’s a City and I couldn’t stop laughing (although not as much as Martin Scorsese). However, this particular book, despite showing her wit, is extremely dated. I’m 52 and even I kept reaching for my phone to Google various people and things that were once part of the popular culture.

This book combines Fran Lebowitz's earlier books: Metropolitan Life and Social Studies. It is a humorous and sardonic look at life. The books are a series of short essays or notes on observation. Some made me laugh and some were just ho-hum.
I think I prefer listening to Fran Lebowitz talk and give her observations, rather than reading them. I just enjoy her voice and her wit, and it comes across better, to me, in her speech.

I was given a copy of this when I was in my early teens (in the early '90s), and a lot of the references went clear over my head, but what I did get, I really enjoyed. Yes, some of it is very dated, but the rest is very funny.