80

the long version

"Whit Johnston's debut novel is a New York story told through the fictional diary entries of one Mary Louise Weeks (ML for short), a struggling photographer and, inadvertently, a brilliant social chronicler. Tinged with a certain wistfulness for a Manhattan long since lost, '80 is a nuanced reminder of how much we a culture have changed since those final months leading up to Reagan's "Morning in America."" "Careening from one photo session to the next, ML scours the city from the depths of the Bowery to the heights of uptown penthouses; from a midtown Diane Arbus exhibit to West Village S&M dens in search of inspiration, authenticity, and maybe even love. Written with the candor and intimacy encountered only in a diary, our hero takes dead aim at the hypocrisies of art, commerce, and the self with humor and compassion, while raising a toast to an inimitable moment in time."--BOOK JACKET.