MAY – FRAN LEBOWITZ
Fran
Lebowitz is a master of social commentary, although she doesn't
practice it in the usual way. She doesn't have a TV show or a newspaper
column or a regular forum of any kind. Three books of her essays have
been published:
Metropolitan Life (1978), Social Studies (1981), and The
Fran Lebowitz Reader (1994). Most of her observations for the last
thirty years have been disseminated through interviews with her
conducted by others and in lectures to college students. Her commentary
takes the form of witty remarks—often devastating one-liners, although
she has no problem talking for long periods of time. In 2010, Martin
Scorsese made a feature-length documentary about her, Public Speaking,
in which she discourses at length. Her point of view is that of a
willfully parochial, contrarian, thoughtful New Yorker with a disdain
for no-smoking rules and most contemporary technology. She is actually
from New Jersey, but she has lived in Manhattan since she was seventeen.
She skipped college and drove a taxi and had a job as a chauffeur for
rock musicians. Then she began writing a column, 'I Cover the
Waterfront,' for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine and essays for
Mademoiselle. That is the work in her collections.
Lebowitz
is a familiar figure in Manhattan. She is almost always dressed in a
custom-made man's black jacket, a white shirt with cuff links, and
jeans. She would be considered a cult figure except for the fact that
her books were bestsellers and that she is well known to a wide
audience, in part through appearances as a guest on late-night
television. She has for many years been said to be writing a novel, even
though, as she acknowledges, she suffers from a monumental writer's
block. In any case, it is likely that she is her most interesting
creation.
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