About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherRandom House Publishing Group

ISBN-100593731824

ISBN-139780593731826

eBay Product ID (ePID)24062937471

Product Key Features

Book TitlePrincess of 72nd Street : a Novel

Number of Pages160 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicContemporary Women, Literary

Publication Year2024

GenreFiction

AuthorElaine Kraf

Book SeriesModern Library Torchbearers Ser.

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.5 in

Item Weight4.8 Oz

Item Length7.9 in

Item Width5.2 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2024-440375

Reviews"A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked, dark story of the old West Side." -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author "When a novelist tells a good story well, it becomes a good novel. When a novelist uses words as if they were sacred love, what is written becomes poetry. Elaine Kraf is a poet." --The New York Times Book Review "A frenetic and glittering manifesto, wherein a woman wrestles--or dances--with the most misunderstood parts of herself . . . a well-deserved reintroduction of what is bound to be a beloved classic for contemporary young women." -- Olivia Gatwood, author of Whoever You Are, Honey "Kraf writes . . . about the habits of madness without trivializing the grimness and pain." --The Village Voice "For a novel that is in many ways about fantasy, there is a bracing wind of keen discernment that sweeps through, from the first pages to the last. It is one of the marvels of this book that Elaine Kraf manages to be so recklessly fantastical and so coolly perceptive at the same time." -- Jen Silverman, author of There's Going to Be Trouble "There are astonishingly affecting contrasts of the sordid and sad, the detached and misaligned. The Princess of 72nd Street is a serious, important piece of contemporary fiction." --Booklist "An electric portrait of one woman's blazing unraveling. Kraf is one of literature's hidden gems--that rare writer who refuses to let us look away from her bright, transcendent suffering. Her work demands a place on your bookshelf right next to Plath and Ditlevsen." -- Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe, "A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked dark story of the old West Side." -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Netanyahus, "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 . Like Renata Adler's Speedboat, Elizabeth Hardwick's Sleepless Nights, Simone de Beauvoir's The Woman Destroyed or Iris Owens's After Claude, 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." -- The Washington Post "Elaine Kraf's The Princess of 72nd Street lyrically details the seventh 'radiance' experienced by a young figure painter named Ellen who, during fits of seeming psychosis, believes herself to be the sovereign ruler of West 72nd between Broadway and Central Park. Ellen/Princess Esmerelda makes witty observations about creativity, femininity, and public life with a voice that feels startlingly modern." -- NYLON "It's hard for me to believe I only just read this book for the first time this winter. And I'm happy for everyone else that it's getting reissued this year . I love the way Kraf writes, she jams so much into her sentences." --Sophie Kemp, Document "A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked, dark story of the old West Side." -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author "When a novelist tells a good story well, it becomes a good novel. When a novelist uses words as if they were sacred love, what is written becomes poetry. Elaine Kraf is a poet." --The New York Times Book Review "A frenetic and glittering manifesto, wherein a woman wrestles--or dances--with the most misunderstood parts of herself . . . a well-deserved reintroduction of what is bound to be a beloved classic for contemporary young women." -- Olivia Gatwood, author of Whoever You Are, Honey "Kraf writes . . . about the habits of madness without trivializing the grimness and pain." --The Village Voice "For a novel that is in many ways about fantasy, there is a bracing wind of keen discernment that sweeps through, from the first pages to the last. It is one of the marvels of this book that Elaine Kraf manages to be so recklessly fantastical and so coolly perceptive at the same time." -- Jen Silverman, author of There's Going to Be Trouble "There are astonishingly affecting contrasts of the sordid and sad, the detached and misaligned. The Princess of 72nd Street is a serious, important piece of contemporary fiction." --Booklist "An electric portrait of one woman's blazing unraveling. Kraf is one of literature's hidden gems--that rare writer who refuses to let us look away from her bright, transcendent suffering. Her work demands a place on your bookshelf right next to Plath and Ditlevsen." -- Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe, "Like Renata Adler's Speedboat, Elizabeth Hardwick's Sleepless Nights, Simone de Beauvoir's The Woman Destroyed or Iris Owens's After Claude, [ The Princess of 72nd Street ] is a slender, accomplished and frequently funny work told from the perspective of a lively and bruised female consciousness." -- The Washington Post "Elaine Kraf's The Princess of 72nd Street lyrically details the seventh 'radiance' experienced by a young figure painter named Ellen who . . . makes witty observations about creativity, femininity, and public life with a voice that feels startlingly modern." -- NYLON "Irresistibly intriguing . . . [ The Princess of 72nd Street ] is bold, beautiful, challenging and charming." -- The Guardian "At the novel's crux is the tension between freedom and autonomy . . . [Kraf] fits right into the [Torchbearers] series' mission." -- TLS "[A] prismatic take on female agency and mental health . . . We're finally catching up with [Kraf's] pioneering mind. . . . What's more, as the world lurches further to the far-right, Kraf's third eye on female liberation makes her writing as vital as ever." -- The Quietus "This slender novel immerses us in the brilliance of its world so we feel as far from madness as its protagonist does." -- Financial Times "It's hard for me to believe I only just read this book for the first time this winter. And I'm happy for everyone else that it's getting reissued this year . I love the way Kraf writes, she jams so much into her sentences." --Sophie Kemp, Document "A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked, dark story of the old West Side." -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author "When a novelist tells a good story well, it becomes a good novel. When a novelist uses words as if they were sacred love, what is written becomes poetry. Elaine Kraf is a poet." --The New York Times Book Review "A frenetic and glittering manifesto, wherein a woman wrestles--or dances--with the most misunderstood parts of herself . . . a well-deserved reintroduction of what is bound to be a beloved classic for contemporary young women." -- Olivia Gatwood, author of Whoever You Are, Honey "Kraf writes . . . about the habits of madness without trivializing the grimness and pain." --The Village Voice "It is one of the marvels of this book that Elaine Kraf manages to be so recklessly fantastical and so coolly perceptive at the same time." -- Jen Silverman, author of There's Going to Be Trouble "There are astonishingly affecting contrasts of the sordid and sad, the detached and misaligned. The Princess of 72nd Street is a serious, important piece of contemporary fiction." --Booklist "An electric portrait of one woman's blazing unraveling." -- Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe, "A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked dark story of the old West Side." -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Netanyahus "For a novel that is in many ways about fantasy, there is a bracing wind of keen discernment that sweeps through from the first pages to the last. Though Ellen is transported into an alternate (and preferable) reality by what she calls her radiances, she maintains an eagle eye on the world she's in and the people around her: their habits, their hypocrisies, their desires, their wounds. It is one of the marvels of this book that Elaine Kraf manages to be so recklessly fantastical and so coolly perceptive at the same time." --Jen Silverman, author of There's Going to Be Trouble "This frenetic and glittering manifesto, wherein a woman wrestles--or dances--with the most misunderstood parts of herself, is a well-deserved reintroduction of what is bound to be a beloved classic for contemporary young women." --Olivia Gatwood, author of Life of the Party "An electric portrait of one woman's blazing unraveling. Kraf is one of literature's hidden gems--that rare writer who refuses to let us look away from her bright, transcendent suffering. Her work demands a place on your bookshelf right next to Plath and Ditlevsen." --Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe, "Like Renata Adler's Speedboat, Elizabeth Hardwick's Sleepless Nights, Simone de Beauvoir's The Woman Destroyed or Iris Owens's After Claude, [ The Princess of 72nd Street ] is a slender, accomplished and frequently funny work told from the perspective of a lively and bruised female consciousness." -- The Washington Post "Elaine Kraf's The Princess of 72nd Street lyrically details the seventh 'radiance' experienced by a young figure painter named Ellen who . . . makes witty observations about creativity, femininity, and public life with a voice that feels startlingly modern." -- NYLON "This slender novel immerses us in the brilliance of its world so we feel as far from madness as its protagonist does. Comparisons have been made to the work of Jean Rhys; I thought too of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet ." -- Financial Times "It's hard for me to believe I only just read this book for the first time this winter. And I'm happy for everyone else that it's getting reissued this year . I love the way Kraf writes, she jams so much into her sentences." --Sophie Kemp, Document "A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked, dark story of the old West Side." -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author "When a novelist tells a good story well, it becomes a good novel. When a novelist uses words as if they were sacred love, what is written becomes poetry. Elaine Kraf is a poet." --The New York Times Book Review "A frenetic and glittering manifesto, wherein a woman wrestles--or dances--with the most misunderstood parts of herself . . . a well-deserved reintroduction of what is bound to be a beloved classic for contemporary young women." -- Olivia Gatwood, author of Whoever You Are, Honey "Kraf writes . . . about the habits of madness without trivializing the grimness and pain." --The Village Voice "For a novel that is in many ways about fantasy, there is a bracing wind of keen discernment that sweeps through, from the first pages to the last. It is one of the marvels of this book that Elaine Kraf manages to be so recklessly fantastical and so coolly perceptive at the same time." -- Jen Silverman, author of There's Going to Be Trouble "There are astonishingly affecting contrasts of the sordid and sad, the detached and misaligned. The Princess of 72nd Street is a serious, important piece of contemporary fiction." --Booklist "An electric portrait of one woman's blazing unraveling. Kraf is one of literature's hidden gems--that rare writer who refuses to let us look away from her bright, transcendent suffering. Her work demands a place on your bookshelf right next to Plath and Ditlevsen." -- Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe, "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." -- The Washington Post "Elaine Kraf's The Princess of 72nd Street lyrically details the seventh 'radiance' experienced by a young figure painter named Ellen who, during fits of seeming psychosis, believes herself to be the sovereign ruler of West 72nd between Broadway and Central Park. Ellen/Princess Esmerelda makes witty observations about creativity, femininity, and public life with a voice that feels startlingly modern." -- NYLON "It's hard for me to believe I only just read this book for the first time this winter. And I'm happy for everyone else that it's getting reissued this year . The Princess of 72nd Street is a novel about mania, and how you can make the world beautiful for yourself through psychosis. I love the way Kraf writes, she jams so much into her sentences." --Sophie Kemp, Document Journal "A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked, dark story of the old West Side." -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author "When a novelist tells a good story well, it becomes a good novel. When a novelist uses words as if they were sacred love, what is written becomes poetry. Elaine Kraf is a poet." --The New York Times Book Review "A frenetic and glittering manifesto, wherein a woman wrestles--or dances--with the most misunderstood parts of herself . . . a well-deserved reintroduction of what is bound to be a beloved classic for contemporary young women." -- Olivia Gatwood, author of Whoever You Are, Honey "Kraf writes . . . about the habits of madness without trivializing the grimness and pain." --The Village Voice "For a novel that is in many ways about fantasy, there is a bracing wind of keen discernment that sweeps through, from the first pages to the last. It is one of the marvels of this book that Elaine Kraf manages to be so recklessly fantastical and so coolly perceptive at the same time." -- Jen Silverman, author of There's Going to Be Trouble "There are astonishingly affecting contrasts of the sordid and sad, the detached and misaligned. The Princess of 72nd Street is a serious, important piece of contemporary fiction." --Booklist "An electric portrait of one woman's blazing unraveling. Kraf is one of literature's hidden gems--that rare writer who refuses to let us look away from her bright, transcendent suffering. Her work demands a place on your bookshelf right next to Plath and Ditlevsen." -- Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe, "A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked dark story of the old West Side." -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Netanyahus "For a novel that is in many ways about fantasy, there is a bracing wind of keen discernment that sweeps through from the first pages to the last. Though Ellen is transported into an alternate (and preferable) reality by what she calls her radiances, she maintains an eagle eye on the world she's in and the people around her: their habits, their hypocrisies, their desires, their wounds. It is one of the marvels of this book that Elaine Kraf manages to be so recklessly fantastical and so coolly perceptive at the same time." --Jen Silverman, author of There's Going to Be Trouble, "A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked dark story of the old West Side." -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Netanyahus "For a novel that is in many ways about fantasy, there is a bracing wind of keen discernment that sweeps through from the first pages to the last. Though Ellen is transported into an alternate (and preferable) reality by what she calls her radiances, she maintains an eagle eye on the world she's in and the people around her: their habits, their hypocrisies, their desires, their wounds. It is one of the marvels of this book that Elaine Kraf manages to be so recklessly fantastical and so coolly perceptive at the same time." --Jen Silverman, author of There's Going to Be Trouble "A frenetic and glittering manifesto, wherein a woman wrestles--or dances--with the most misunderstood parts of herself. A well-deserved reintroduction of what is bound to be a beloved classic for contemporary young women." --Olivia Gatwood, author of Life of the Party

TitleLeadingThe

Dewey Edition23/eng/20231120

Dewey Decimal813/.54

Synopsis"That rare thing: a true underappreciated classic" ( The New Yorker ), about a smart and sensitive yet deeply troubled young woman fighting to live on her own terms "Provocative . . . 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 "Kraf's groovy, glimmering novel . . . deserves to be read--not for the nitty-gritty New York of it all but for her wry, confiding voice, which is funny, disarming and frequently ruthless."-- The New York Times I am glad I have the radiance. This time I am wiser. No one will know. . . . The radiance drifts blue circles around my head. If I wanted to I could float up and through them. I am weightless. My brain is cool like rippling waves. Conflict does not exist. For a moment I cannot see--the lights are large orange flowers. Ellen has two lives. A single artist living alone on New York's Upper West Side in the 1970s, she periodically descends into episodes of what she calls "radiances." While under the influence of the radiance, she becomes Princess Esmeralda, and West 72nd Street becomes the kingdom over which she rules. Life as Esmeralda is a colorful, glorious, and 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. In what would turn out to be her final published work, Elaine Kraf tackles mental health and female agency in this utterly original, witty, and inventive novel. Provocative at the time of its publication in 1979 and thoroughly iconoclastic, The Princess of 72nd Street is a remarkable portrait of an unforgettable woman., A provocative and thoroughly feminist "cult classic" ( The New Yorker ) about a smart, sensitive, yet deeply troubled young woman fighting to live on her own terms. I am glad I have the radiance. This time I am wiser. No one will know... The radiance drifts blue circles around my head. If I wanted to I could float up and through them. I am weightless. My brain is cool like rippling waves. Conflict does not exist. For a moment I cannot see-the lights are large orange flowers. Ellen has two lives. A single artist living alone on New York's Upper West Side in the 1970s, she periodically descends into episodes she describes as "radiances." While under the influence of the radiance, she becomes Princess Esmeralda, and West 72nd Street the kingdom over which she rules. Life as Esmeralda is a colourful, glorious, liberating experience for Ellen, and despite the chaos and stigma these episodes can bring, she 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 the freedom it gives her. In what would turn to be her final published work, originally released in 1979, Elaine Kraf tackles a dark and disturbing subject in an utterly original, witty, and inventive manner. Provocative at the time of its publication and thoroughly iconoclastic, The Princess of 72nd Street is a remarkable portrait of an unforgettable woman.

LC Classification NumberPS3561.R2P75 2024

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Princess of 72nd Street : A Novel by Elaine Kraf (2024, Trade Paperback)

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