The Princess of 72nd Street Audiobook

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 72ndStreet sounds like a contemporary cry for freedom from the expectations of othersThe Atlantic

Krafs groovy glimmering novel deserves to be readnot for the nittygritty New York of it all but for her wry confiding voice which is funny disarming and frequently ruthlessThe 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 seethe lights are large orange flowers

Ellen has two lives A single artist living alone on New Yorks 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