films, as was Ellis’s notoriously violentAmerican Psy-
cho(1990), which achieved a cult following.
Janowitz Tama Janowitz was brought up in a highly
educated, literate household: Her father, Julian, was
a Freudian psychiatrist, and her mother, Phyllis, was
a poet and assistant professor at Cornell University.
They divorced when Janowitz was ten, and she and
her brother were brought up primarily in Massachu-
setts. She earned a B.A. from Barnard College in
1977 and the following year received an M.A. from
Hollins College, where she wrote her first novel. In
the early 1980’s, Janowitz enrolled in the Yale School
of Drama and then spent two years at the Fine Arts
Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She
also earned an M.F.A. from Columbia University a
year beforeSlaves of New Yorkwas published. A cou-
ple of the short stories included in that collection,
her best-known work, were published in magazines,
including the title story inThe New Yorker. Adept
at promoting herself, Janowitz became a friend of
Andy Warhol, made the rounds of the New York art
parties, and set herself up on the gossip circuit be-
fore the book’s publication. When it came out in
1986, it was a great success, appearing on theNew
York Timesbest seller list, as well as all the other ma-
jor lists of best-selling fiction. The collection made
Janowitz an instant celebrity, and it was made into a
film in 1989 directed by James Ivory and starring Ber-
nadette Peters. Although Janowitz wrote the screen-
play and worked closely with producer Ismail Mer-
chant and director Ivory, the film was not a success.
In 1987, Janowitz publishedA Cannibal in Man-
hattan, a reworking of a previous manuscript. The
protagonist, Mgungu Yabba Mgungu, is a young
man brought to New York from a remote island by a
wealthy socialite. He finds city life both barbarous
and incomprehensible, and his viewpoint acts as
commentary on a New York society of consumerism
and capitalism. The critics were not as impressed
withA Cannibal in Manhattanas they had been with
the earlier work.
Impact The media’s breathless reporting of every
public appearance the Brat Pack made, as well as of
their personal peccadilloes and habits, fostered the
idea that writers’ lives were equal in importance to
their work. Their celebrity never equaled that of mu-
sic or film stars, but the Brat Pack demonstrated that
the world of literature was capable of producing tab-
loid sensations of its own. As they were used by the
media, the three writers learned to use the media in
turn for publicity purposes. The later careers of
Janowitz, Ellis, and McInerney, however, failed to
fulfill their early, and exaggerated, promise.Further Reading
Calcutt, Andrew, and Richard Shephard.Cult Fiction:
A Reader’s Guide. Lincolnwood, Ill.: Contempo-
rary Books, 1999. All three members of the Brat
Pack are included in this comprehensive study of
dozens of fiction writers who achieved a cult fol-
lowing.
St. John, Warren. “His Morning After.”The New York
Times, February 5, 2006. Describes the changes
McInerney went through in the years afterBright
Lights, Big City.
Spy Editors. Spy Notes on McInerney’s “Bright Lights, Big
City,” Janowitz’s “Slaves of New York, ” Ellis’ “Less than
Zero,” and All Those Other Hip Urban Novels of the
1980’s.New York: Dolphin/Doubleday, 1989.
Provides literary criticism and analyses of the Brat
Pack’s most famous books, as well as other 1980’s
urban fiction.
Sheila Golburgh JohnsonSee also Book publishing; Brat Pack in acting;
Clancy, Tom; Journalism; Literature in the United
States; Minimalist literature;thirtysomething; Yuppies.Brawley, Tawana
Identification Accuser in a prominent 1987 New
York rape case
Born September 3, 1972; Duchess County, New
YorkAgainst a backdrop of several prominent racial incidents in
New York, Tawana Brawley’s accusations of rape against
six New York police officers and public officials created a
storm of controversy and raised wide-ranging questions
about issues of race, gender, politics, and media in the
United States.Tawana Brawley was a fifteen-year-old African Ameri-
can high school student who leaped into the na-
tional spotlight after claiming she had been raped
and abused by six white men, including several po-
lice officers. On November 28, 1987, she had been
found behind her home lying in a fetal position,
smeared with feces and wrapped in a garbage bag.140 Brawley, Tawana The Eighties in America