Back To Tama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                I promise you, girls, this will be the last you hear of Tama on here, for awhile.  But, let's face it, aside from this blog, when has so much been heard about her so recently?

                                I thought she had long ago stopped writing, and there were maybe just three or four tomes hanging out in used book bins.  "Scream" was published just last year, and her body of work consists of eleven books.  I doubt whether I will track them down and read them all, so don't worry.

                                 Now, about "Scream."  It shows, once again, that Tama Janowitz can write, and here she writes with greater discipline, because she is greatly matured and lives an altogether different life than the one depicted in 'Slaves.'  But, then, don't we all, dolls?

                                  The most real and touching parts of the book are where she writes about caring for her dying mother, the poet Phyllis Janowitz, and the relationship they shared.  Writing about the  moment she received word of her mother's death is as moving as this book gets.  It's just there are other things I wish she had written more in depth about.

                                    Like the whole Literary Brat Pack thing, which she tosses off in a single paragraph.  Even though she has said, elsewhere, she was just thrown into the mix, she doesn't mention that here, forgetting that, along with Donna Tartt she is one of the real writers who deserves to belong here.  I guess her "Slaves Of New York" period was not the defining moment of her life readers might have thought it was, because she seems more interested in, and writes interestingly about, her screwed up psychiatrist father, transitioning out of New York City, horseback riding, her daughter, Willow, and legal battles with her scumbag of a brother, who sounds like he inherited most of Daddy's aberrant tendencies.  By the time I was finished with the book, I, too, hated his wife, Veronica.  And I will never meet her.

                                   So, Tama does still have the writer thing going.  It is just that what I thought would be important to her--because it is what would have been to me--is not, so while there is plenty of information given, it may not be what the reader wanted or expected.

                                    She teases us with what we want to know, then gives us full throttle on what matters most to her.  Which means you should not avoid the book.  It means to accept Tama for who she is, rather than the image projected on to her.

                                      It's tough being ourselves, girls.  Try being Tama Janowitz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      This book shows it's not that easy.