{"product_id":"black-swans-isbn-9781640090507","title":"Black Swans","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Babitz’s talent for the brilliant line, honed to a point, never interferes with her feel for languid pleasures.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA new reissue of Babitz’s collection of nine stories that look back on the 1980s and early 1990s—decades of dreams, drink, and glimpses of a changing world. \u003ci\u003eBlack Swans\u003c\/i\u003e further celebrates the phenomenon of Eve Babitz, cementing her reputation as the voice of a generation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith an introduction by Stephanie Danler, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eSweetbitter\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"On the page, Babitz is pure pleasure—a perpetual–motion machine of no–stakes elation and champagne fizz.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Babitz’s talent for the brilliant line, honed to a point, never interferes with her feel for languid pleasures.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"On the page, Babitz is pure pleasure—a perpetual–motion machine of no–stakes elation and champagne fizz.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"She’s a natural. Or gives every appearance of being one, her writing elevated yet slangy, bright, bouncy, cheerfully hedonistic—L.A. in it purest, most idealized form.\" —\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] true original.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eBlack Swans\u003c\/i\u003e, originally out in 1993 and reissued this year, is the best example of what makes her writing so essential. The discursive nature of her short stories allows her narratives to move in tandem with the sociopolitical issues she is constantly and effectively addressing. It’s a model for writing fiction that addresses politics that feels neither didactic nor preachy but natural. This is the product of the autobiographical style of her writing which often has a texture more similar to personal nonfiction than fiction, which makes conversations about contemporary events feel naturally woven into her world . . . On top of all this, of course, Babitz is one of the most wonderful American prose stylists. Every page is littered with perfectly critical, funny, and illuminating sentences it seems only she could write . . . Nobody saw—or sees—the world as Babitz does, its glitz alongside what had to be scraped off to make it shine. Throughout \u003ci\u003eBlack Swans\u003c\/i\u003e, she writes with ease about how the social and political impact both the people who are around here and the people who aren’t. It’d be a boon for fiction writing if more writers could manifest this, too.\" —Bradley Babendir, \u003ci\u003eMedium\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[Babitz's] recent renaissance, like her writing, has been both propulsive and rapturous . . . What’s captivating about Babitz’s particular mode of confession is that it’s anchored by an intuition that renders her environs both so enchanted and familiar. And her irreverence in the face of persistent expectations of feminine decorum—reanimated like a sociocultural zombie during this administration—can cause a sigh of relief . . . Babitz is sensitive to [Los Angeles's] fundamental contradictions. Namely, its preoccupation with contrived beauty and glitz and its vulnerability to nature’s impositions: the hot gale winds of the Santa Anas, the earthquakes, and the fires. Her wholesale embrace of what is lovely and dangerous and absurd about Los Angeles appeals to contemporary readers. After all, the world Babitz depicts in her books of women roaming its streets and weighing their impulses very much remains the same, even if the landscape of the city itself has changed . . . The world she renders for us is always worth dwelling in.\" —\u003ci\u003eBuzzFeed\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What stands out about Babitz's writing is her voice: smart, unapologetic and knowing, like Dorothy Parker magically time traveling to the modern era . . . Rereading Babitz is a delicious, guilty pleasure.\" —\u003ci\u003eAlta\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Babitz's writing is also like the jacaranda tree in glorious bloom—bewitching an entire city, but all too brief.\" —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This reissue of one of Eve Babitz’s best collections is a doozy. If Grace Paley was the voice of the ’60s and ’70s, Babitz manages to be that voice for the ’80s . . . With a keen eye and a rambunctious voice, Babitz tells the story of a generation’s version of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and the recovery from it all. A fantastic and stirring collection, apt for our time’s obsessions.\" —\u003ci\u003eRead It Forward\u003c\/i\u003e, A Favorite Read for April 2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The subject of these nine stories by Babitz (\u003ci\u003eSex and Rage\u003c\/i\u003e) is Hollywood: brilliant and beautiful couples who somehow get along; charming yet moody men and their odd needs; and \"Eve,\" the narrator, who cautiously reveals in herself the vices of a naughty but not really bad girl.\" —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Babitz is an acquired taste: her slewing style, bad–girl postures, and sad–funny takes on hedonism can be deliciously shocking . . . Here, though, as the narrator of these nine story\/essays approaches middle–age—after all the drugs, booze, groupie sex, and wild passionate flings—the sense of brakes applied turns Babitz's voice sage as well as outrageous . . . as dispensed as Babitz's people try to be, they never are far from their fears and insecurities—and her wisecracking, ain't–it–the–truth–honey voice is just about perfect in illuminating the fact . . . Babitz's best book yet.\" —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eEVE BABITZ\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of several books of fiction, including \u003ci\u003eSex and Rage\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEve’s Hollywood\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSlow Days, Fast Company\u003c\/i\u003e. Her nonfiction works include \u003ci\u003eFiorucci: The Book\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTwo by Two\u003c\/i\u003e. She has written for publications including \u003ci\u003eMs.\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e, and in the late 1960s, she designed album covers for the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and Linda Ronstadt.","brand":"Counterpoint","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302721507557,"sku":"NP9781640090507","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781640090507.jpg?v=1767722721","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/black-swans-isbn-9781640090507","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}