Rainey Royal

July 14, 2014
In her first novel, Landis returns to the themes and characters of her collection of linked short stories, 2009’s Normal People Don’t Live Like This. The title character, 14 years old when we first meet her in 1972, lives in a once-grand Greenwich Village townhouse with her father, Howard, a jazz musician of some note, and Howard’s various hangers-on. The unwanted sexual attentions of her father’s friend Gordy, who also had a relationship with her absent mother, both confuse and repulse Rainey, who, along with friends Tina and Leah, wields her nascent sexual power awkwardly yet dangerously. Over the course of the novel, which covers more than a decade, Rainey develops into an artist, piecing together commemorative tapestries out of clothing, photographs, and jewelry of the deceased. Her story, along with Tina and Leah’s, illustrate a particularly fraught view of adolescent female sexuality. “Notice me. Stay away,” thinks Leah at one point at a party, and these dueling sentiments sum up these girls’ complex and contradictory attitudes toward sex, romance, and even friendship. Landis offers a rich, sometimes challenging portrait of young women doing their best to grow in the absence of positive role models. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency.

September 1, 2014
In 14 linked stories (one of which won a 2014 O. Henry Prize), Landis shapes a mesmerizing portrait of a teenager in 1970s Greenwich Village. Rainey Royal's life is wantonly glamorous, degenerate, sophisticated-a lonely combination for a 14-year-old girl whose mother has run away to an ashram. She lives in the Village with her father, Howard, a renowned jazz musician whose acolytes fill their once-grand town house (chandeliers and Beidermeier chests are periodically sent to Sotheby's to keep the lights on and the drugs flowing). The acolytes are a nuisance-they rummage through Rainey's things, use her bed, and the girls sleep with Howard-but it's Gordy, Howard's best friend and accompanist, who causes Rainey shame and confusion when he sneaks into her room every night to stroke her hair. Howard forces Rainey to take birth control pills, to trim his beard, to make allowances for the stream of strangers, but there are things that strengthen Rainey: her art; her friend Tina, who understands everything; and Saint Catherine of Bologna, a surrogate protector in lieu of a mother. Seemingly on the verge of becoming a victim, Rainey is a predator, too-to the gentler girls at school, to the young men hanging on Howard, and, in the best of the novel's sections, to a young couple she and Tina follow home and force into their apartment at gunpoint. Once there, they take the kind of revenge only powerless teenage girls can think of. As Rainey gets older, she gets commissions for her art, tapestries (like the novel itself) made from the detritus of a person's life. Landis takes more risks when Rainey is younger than she does in some of the later stories, which include more of Tina and another girl, Leah, a shift in perspective that makes the novel less intense. Landis (Normal People Don't Live Like This, 2009), a perceptive writer, has created a kind of scandalous beauty in her tale of the simultaneously fierce and vulnerable Rainey.

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August 1, 2014

Growing up in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s, Rainey--temptress, bully, natural manipulator, defiant daughter--inspires fierce jealousy in Tina, her best friend; and in Leah, a protective instinct. Rainey wasn't able to keep her mother from leaving, and now she can't stop her jazz musician father from bringing groupies and proteges into their home. The linked stories alternate among the three girls' points of view, spanning from ages 14 to 26. Rainey becomes a struggling artist, but her biggest challenge is with her dad; in the end, she gains the independence she wants. The other girls lead more conventional lives but stay mesmerized by Rainey. Sometimes there is a jarring jump in years from one story to the next but the themes remain constant, and each narrative continues the thread of the previous one, intricately detailing the characters' desires with brilliant, delicate writing. VERDICT The undeniable quality of Landis's (Normal People Don't Live Like This) prose (this is her first novel) will make this a solid choice for literary fiction readers; it also will be appreciated by those who are interested in narratives that depict the bohemian lifestyle. [See Prepub Alert, 3/31/14; a section of this book, "Trust," was a winner of a 2014 O. Henry Prize; for another novel of connected stories, see Alice Simpson's Ballroom, reviewed below.--Ed.]--Sonia Reppe, Stickney-Forest View P.L., IL

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2014
At 14, Rainey Royal lives in Greenwich Village with her famous jazz musician father and a varying number of his musical tagalongs. Rainey is talented, too, but her interest is in the art world, and her father's regard for her is limited. His only passions are jazz and sex, and he pursues these not only in the 1970s club world but also in their brownstone with his acolytes and sometimes even with Rainey's friends. Enveloped by her father's sphere of loose values, Rainey is a vulnerable and lonely teenager, and she rebels in unconventional, sometimes criminal ways while seeking stability in her relationships with friends. For Rainey, growing up means finding her power as an artist in a world that seems to revolve around her father and detaching herself from the people who hurt her while cleaving to those who love her. Beautiful, richly drawn characters will pull readers into this emotionally charged story and keep them clinging to every lyrical word. Landis' captivating first novel is a ringing tribute to friendship, autonomy, and artistic presence.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)