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The Princess of 72nd Street: A Novel Audiobook
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A provocative and thoroughly feminist “cult classic” (The New Yorker) about a smart and sensitive yet deeply troubled young woman fighting to live on her own terms—now returning to print for the first time in over a decade
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.
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"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
Quotes
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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 -
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 -
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 -
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. Elaine 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 -
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
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About Kristen Sieh
Kristen Sieh is a voice and television actress. She has appeared on such television shows as Law & Order and Boardwalk Empire. She has also narrated several audio books.