By the Shores of the Gitchee Gumee

by Tama Janowitz

"Did you know that the blood fluke lives in a state of permanent copulation, inside a chicken?" asks Maud Slivenowicz, the 19-year old daughter of Evangeline Slivenowicz, who is the central character in Tama Janowitz's novel The Shores of Gitchee Gumee. If you think that's shocking, try this one on for Tama Janowitz, author of The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group and Slaves of New York, has written a novel that was inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Song of Haiwatha." Maud is one of five children, who are sired by five different fathers, living in a crappy little trailer down by the Gitchee Gumee. Before it's all over, the trailer rolls into the lake, a kidnapping occurs, and the whole kit and caboodle end up in Southern California. Janowitz is in fine fettle here. But you can blame it on Longfellow.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Tama Janowitz is an American novelist and a short story writer. The 2005 September/October issue of Pages magazine listed her as one of the four "brat pack" authors, along with Bret Easton Ellis, Mark Lindquist and Jay McInerney.

Born in San Francisco, California to a psychiatrist father and literature professor mother who divorced when she was ten, Janowitz moved to the East Coast of the United States to attend Barnard College and the Columbia University School of the Arts and started writing about life in New York City, where she had settled down.

She socialized with Andy Warhol and became well-known in New York's literary and social circles. Her 1986 collection of short stories, Slaves of New York brought her wider fame. Slaves of New York was adapted into a 1989 film directed by James Ivory and starring Bernadette Peters. Janowitz wrote the screenplay and also appeared, playing Peters' friend.

Janowitz has published seven novels, one collection of stories and one work of non-fiction. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Tim Hunt, and their adopted daughter.

Reviews

[Libby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't especially like Longfellow so I guess a book containing so many references to The Song of Hiawatha was never really going to float my boat. I found the arbitrary footnotes and haphazard allusions to poetry and scientific facts awkward and irritating, the whole book was directionless, shallow, pointless and worst of all not funny in the slightest. Meh.

[Alvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't swear it, but I think this is an homage to Ivy Compton-Burnett, the famously camp British family novelist. Even if it isn't, it's quite a hoot. Splendidly diverting.

[Ayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely adored this book! That it was so charming, so funny, so familiar to me in some sort of ineffable way came as a complete, and so, a wonderful, surprise.

[Gigi Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVED THIS BOOK. amazing writing, story had enough momentum while still allowing for utter silliness. reminded me of TKAMB for some reason. love these characters.

[Havilah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went through a period where I loved reading Tama Janowitz's books. This book is quirky and goofy, but fun. I read it while I was travelling through England. I actually bought it at an english bookstore in France and read it while I was in Bath, England. Total fun and silliness. I totally connected to the trashiness of this story :)

[Helen]

Awful book, awful writer - avoid at all costs!!!! 3 books for $30 it's not worth the suffering of trying to read this

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhausting! But, RIYL Oh! by Mary Robison, which I do, very much.