Scream

Once declared New York City’s literary “It Girl”—hanging out with the likes of Andy Warhol and Lou Reed, partying at Studio 54, and coming of age alongside contemporary, edgy writers who together with Tama were deemed the “Literary Brat Pack”—Tama Janowitz has always been an original. She left the glamour and glitz of the 1980s behind to be a wife, mother, and poodle wrangler—only to find herself still searching for a sense of purpose. In Scream she traverses time, memory, and place to examine the events that led her through the 1980s to where she is now: (almost) broke, (almost) divorced, attempting to raise a daughter, taking care of her ailing mother, peacemaking with her eccentric father, and learning the strange mythos and culture of upstate New York, which, while only a few hours north of New York City, might as well be on a different planet. Crafted with humor, irony, and self-awareness, Scream is Tama Janowitz at her most candid and straightforward as she weaves memoir with her acutely unconventional voice.