The Princess of 72nd Street
- Auteur: Elaine Kraf (Verenigde Staten)
- Soort boek: Amerikaanse roman uit 1979
- Taal: Engels
- Uitgever: Penguin Modern Classics
- Verschijnt: 2 januari 2025
- Omvang: 160 pagina’s
- Uitgave: paperback / ebook
- Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol
Elaine Kraf The Princess of 72nd Street recensie, review en informatie
- “If one were to imagine a perfect specimen of a ‘forgotten classic’ by a woman writer from the 1960s and ’70s, you might come up with The Princess of 72nd Street… it’s a slender, accomplished and frequently funny work told from the perspective of a lively and bruised female consciousness….Its first-person narration feels essayistic, full of bold declarations about heterosexual love, gender roles and aesthetics.” (Washington Post)
- “A provocative 1970s novel…. Almost half a century after it was first published, The Princess of 72nd Street sounds like a contemporary cry for freedom from the expectations of others.” (The Atlantic)
Flaptekst van de Amerikaanse roman uit 1979 van Elaine Kraf
Ellen is a single artist living alone on New York’s Upper West Side in the 1970s. She is beset by old boyfriends, paint pigment choices, and, occasionally, by ‘radiances’ – episodes of joyous, reckless unreality. Under the influence of ‘radiances’ she becomes Princess Esmeralda, and West 72nd Street becomes the kingdom over which she rules. Life as Esmeralda is a liberating experience for Ellen, who, despite the chaos and stigma these episodes can bring, relishes the respite from the confines of the everyday. And yet those around her, particularly the men in her life, are threatened by her incarnation as Esmeralda, and by the freedom that it gives her.
The Princess of 72nd Streetis Elaine Kraf’s witty, dizzyingly inventive take on female liberation and mental health, a work of immense literary power and unbridled energy. Provocative at the time of its publication in 1979 and thoroughly iconoclastic, it is a remarkable portrait of an unforgettable woman.
Elaine Kraf (21 February 1936, New York City – 26 June 2013) was a writer and painter. She was the author of four published works of fiction: I Am Clarence (1969), The House of Madelaine (1971), Find Him! (1977) and The Princess of 72nd Street (1979)—as well as several unpublished novels, plays and poetry collections. She was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts awards, a 1971 fellowship at the Broad Loaf Writers’ Conference and a 1977 residency at Yaddo. She was born and lived in New York City.