Harriet Daimler is getting kicked out by her lover, Claude the French Rat, who is such a rat he expects her to stick around to host one last dinner party. Instead, she goes on a rampage through downtown New York City that culminates in a hallucinatory, psychologically harrowing, deeply hilarious and hugely weird scene at the Chelsea Hotel. It’s Harriet’s happening, man, and it will freak YOU out. This 1973 novel by notorious raconteur, pornographer, gambler, and nice Jewish girl who went to Barnard Iris Owens is without peer or parallel. We are delighted to be featuring the 2010 NYRB Classics edition, introduced by Emily Praeger.
You can purchase this book directly from NYRB.
Iris Owens was born in New York City and died in 2008. She is also the author of an autobiographical novel, Hope Diamond Refuses (1984) as well as several pornographic novels published under the name Harriet Daimler.
"'Me a bore?' I laughed, amazed that the rat would resort to such a bizarre accusation. I have since learned never to be amazed at what men will resort to when cornered by a woman's intelligence."
-Iris Owens, After Claude
