The Granta party (issue 171: “Dead Friends” launch) was at Sevilla, in the West Village, the day after New York magazine’s cover story “It Must be Nice to be a West Village Girl” was published online. I heard at least one “must be nice” in reference to it. I wore a black, shoulder-padded Armani dress, black loafers, and sheer black stockings, but white, like the white tank tops the West Village girls wear, was the evening’s color, starting with the restaurant’s tablecloths, shoved together to make room for a crowd of writers and their plus-ones.
The pure white-haired, 86-year-old Renata Adler was there, in for the day from Connecticut, to celebrate the publication of a shelved 6,000-word piece written after the death of her friend, Hannah Arendt. The untitled, unedited essay is presented as a photocopy of typewritten pages alongside a new interview. Everyone was asking each other if they had spoken to her, and my response was that I don’t like meeting my idols. Still, I saw an old copy of Speedboat (1976) in someone’s tote, and felt a twist of regret. I hope she signed it, for whoever that was who brought it!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Selling Out to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.