Black Swans by Eve Babitz

Black Swans Reviews

• 
  lou

  a book for hot girls about a hot girl doing hot girl things
• 
  emma

  eve babitz everything.
  
  these felt a little more outdated than eve usually does (how is she so magically relevant regardless of timing!), but they still had as much of her humor and wit and charm.
  
  i love her.
  
  bottom line: get me her grocery lists.
• 
  Vanessa

  I could have kept reading these stories forever...I think I’ll have to track down her earlier books now.
• 
  lou

  how extraordinary she is. i've completely fallen in love with this book. eve gave us 9 amazing stories about her life (and others), each one being so exciting and interesting, her being shameless was just everything. tangoland was my favourite for sure, the way she talked about my culture was so beautiful and i'm really happy she did this, she captured it so well and i could swear i felt through her words how much she liked it there. another favourite was one free tibet was really emotional, and touching, something not easy to forget. and last but not least, i loved expensive regrets, theres something in the way she tells us these stories that make it so enjoyable, but i dont even know how to describe it. one of the best books that i read in the year for sure.
  
  oct 26 - oct 31
• 
  daniella ❀

  miss eve babitz never disappoints
• 
  Teodora

  Overall it is 2.8 but I round it up to 3 stars
  
  Jealousy - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
  Slumming at the Rodeo Gardens - ⭐
  Free Tibet - ⭐
  Self-Enchanted City - ⭐
  Expensive Regrets - ⭐⭐⭐
  Tangoland - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
  Weird August - ⭐⭐
  Coco - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  Black Swans - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  
  I found/read this book as part of the Audrey Hope book club otherwise I wouldn't have found it.
  
  I guess that if someone loves Eve Babitz right now it is a red flag for me. Her writing style was not the problem for me but what she was talking about.
  
  1. The way she was so casual about cheating like everyone cheats and it is normal to do so, it is not and not everyone does it! I feel like dating and relationships didn't evolve at all since the 80s~90s or when was this book written and I am disappointed af. Also, there were no feelings behind the cheating, everyone was cheating. She was sleeping with a married man. The only reason I rated Jealousy, the first chapter, 5 stars is that it was funny how it portrayed the difference between the sexes when they cheat. Everything is fine and everyone is supposed to be happy if HE cheats, but if SHE does it she is a hoe! I find it funny how this mentality is still going even now, and even more because really a woman is a hoe either way after a break-up or in any situation.
  
  2. She was a bad person overall.
  
  3. Everything was about L.A. I'm not from L.A. or even the USA so the L.A. parts really were boring for me, which means 80% of the parts were boring in the end. She talks so much about L.A. about how amazing it is, at least she is aware that the USA is not better than Europe like most think. She really thought she can make her boyfriend move to L.A. because she wouldn't leave it of course! The love for L.A. left me speechless and I'm happy I'm not an American.
  
  4. There were moments when she was writing about something, ex. a person, and then in the next second without a real context or a link between them changed to another person or event or whatever. It was hard to keep up with anything she was writing about sometimes, add to that the boring subjects she was talking about in some stories, it was bad...
  
  I think I had way too high hopes for this one and ended up being disappointed af.
  
  One good thing that came out of this, looks like I really love short stories/essay type of books! Will be reading more in this style soon.
• 
  kaitlyn

  a stunning love letter to l.a. and one of my favorite collections. nobody does it like eve babitz
• 
  Janelle Janson

  Thank you so much to Counterpoint Press for providing my free copy of BLACK SWANS by Eve Babitz - all opinions are my own.
  
  I read SEX AND RAGE last year and LOVED IT so much I knew I HAD to read this! First off, I’m obsessed with the new cover! And second, I’m still obsessed with Eve’s writing! She is a keen observer and has a way of drawing you in. She writes without judgment, without apologizing, and with so much confidence.
  
  This is a collection of nine short stories that focus on the 1980’s, 1990’s, and of course, Los Angeles. My favorite stories of the group are Tangoland, Jealousy, Black Swans, and Free Tibet. I love that it’s almost the opposite of SEX AND RAGE as it’s a more mellow and sober Eve, but still captures her amazing effervescent, humorous, and intensely personal style. BLACK SWANS is a beautifully written collection of stories that I highly recommend! I adore Eve Babitz and immediately ran out to buy her other books.
• 
  alexia

  i want eve babbitz to read me bedtime stories
• 
  Ana WJ

  INTO IT!
  thoughts on the tooooob!
• 
  Nicola

  My favourite Babitz so far. I don’t know why it’s categorised as fictional short stories when they are memoir essays; I’m guessing it’s to avoid legal issues since she references real people. Regardless, I enjoyed it even more than Slow Days, Fast Company. Free Tibet is an amazing piece, and the title story/essay is also great. There are a few less interesting ones in the middle, but for the most part I love stepping into Eve’s shoes and taking a walk around in her mind and her world.
• 
  Uzma Ali

  This book about Eve Babitz's relationships/friendships in Hollywood was just the epitome of mediocre. I usually have a lot to say about the books I read, even 3 star-rated books. (You guys have seen my lengthy review of Beautiful World, Where Are You?) But I actually have no thoughts about this. None. It was fine, I guess. Nothing was inherently wrong with it. It was just soooo..... meh.
• 
  emma griffioen!

  this was a great introduction to eve babitz! i really loved her writing style and was highlighting quotes constantly. i cant wait for my library loan of sex and rage by her to come in because i think it will be a 5 star read especially now that i know i love babitz's writing <3
  
  my favourite short stories were jealousy and black swans!
• 
  Linda Robinson

  This may be my favorite. It's now the 90s. Jim Morrison is dead in Paris, Babitz has given up drugs and drinking, and the nine stories collected here are reminiscent. Marvelous reflection. Aging, AIDS, friends with big houses with children. Tango. Obsessions remembered, abandoned, revisited. L.A.'s temperature is hot and hazy and so is the prose.
• 
  leah

  really enjoyed this, although not as much as
  slow days, fast company but i think that's because i have a thing for the vibe of 60s/70s california. but eve babitz is just so witty and i always have a great time reading about all the things she got up to back in the day. don’t quite understand why this is labelled ‘fiction’ and why it also says that on the back cover, because to me it’s clearly memoir essays about her life, but maybe that’s just for legal reasons as she’s talking about real people.
• 
  RensReadingRainbow

  I could not stand the endless narcissism, and selfish, shallow behavior. The writing is scatter-brained and often mind-numbingly dull. L.A. is hell on earth if everyone there is like this. The only reason I gave this any stars at all is because I know these stories are based on her real experiences, and it takes guts to detail all the ways you have completely screwed over your friends. She’s an asshole through and through, and it’s a wonder anyone talked to her at all.
• 
  Cátia Vieira

  Why should you read this book?
  I have to admit that until I read Sex and Rage, Eve Babitz was unknown to me. After reading it, I had that magical and transcendental feeling that I had just discovered an unforgettable and unique writer. Black Swans: Stories left me with no doubt: I am sold.
  
  But who is Eve Babitz? Born in Hollywood, in 1943, Babitz is an American author and artist. Los Angeles plays a main role in her fictive memoirs, but so do the men, the artists, and the drugs. And, if we’re talking men, we should just mention that Jim Morrison was one of her many lovers.
  
  Black Swans: Stories, published in 1993, is a collection of brilliant short stories. Babitz explored the modern society of Los Angeles and its beauty and rottenness. Through her honesty, sensitivity and her singular sense of humour, the author wrote about the human condition.
  
  In stories like “Jealousy” and “Free Tibet”, Babitz dealt with our most profound flaws. I asked myself: “how can we be so flawed, so blind, so mean and so self-absorbed…?” “Slumming at the Rodeo Gardens” and “Self-Enchanted City” portray the vanity of Los Angeles and brings into discussion what Babitz calls the ‘self-enchantment’ and the ‘self-enchanted people’. According to her, “Hollywood is a fiction that happened, a tornado of fabrication, a comedy of publicity. (…) Whatever it is, it’s not over yet. Not yet”.
  
  One of my favourite stories is “Black Swans”. What a standout! In this text, Babitz is hopelessly in love with a writer called Walter and is as close to getting married as she would ever be. However, after a magazine that rejected his stories buys one of hers, he abandons Babitz. Although she reconsiders the moment she sent the piece more than once, she had decided she would “become art, not decoration”.
  
  And, in spite of all the plights and the nasty people, Eve Babtiz has always envisioned life like a tango (“Tangoland”). After all, we just can’t turn to mush, we cannot leave, we must stay and resist. I had this constant feeling like Babitz was this older and wiser sister, teaching and revealing me the amazing secrets of life. She doesn’t mind rottenness and impoliteness. She thrives on that and transforms it into beauty, into experience, into learning, into literature, into art.
  
  I also think Eve Babitz knows how to start a short story as few writers do. The beginning of her texts are poetic, beautiful and simple. But all of her writing is, after all. In Black Swans: stories, her words exude wisdom and clarity. Even if sometimes she is insecure, Babitz knows herself. Her sobriety suits her so well.
  
  Eve Babitz became one of my muses, undoubtedly, and one of my favourite female writers. There was this moment, she mentioned that when we admire an author, we think we become that same author; we believe we wrote ourselves those words. Oh my, didn’t I feel this with both of her books…?
  
  
  Lastly, I’d like to thank Counterpoint for the galley.
  
  For more reviews, follow me on Instagram: @booksturnyouon
• 
  sree

  dnf at 55%
  I'm sorry but I don't think this is for me
  I found this extremely boring 😬
• 
  chantel nouseforaname

  This read like if Kit from Pretty Woman, or ummm Vivian, played by Julia Robert’s character in the film, wrote stories of their lives and their friends before she meets Richard Gere and goes nowhere.
  
  It felt very Melrose Place, except with more drugs and.. as I can remember it.. and I can’t remember it too clearly because I was a youngin when that show was on but from what I remember this was giving me heavy Melrose Place vibes.
  
  You know, there were some moments in here that just felt like navel-gazing, pimping-myself-out (which I love), rich-bitch nonsense. And then there were moments of extreme clarity and hyper-focused lucidity delivered with a cutting twist.
  
  Her viewpoints on certain situations re: men and the continuous pursuit of youth and beauty when it comes to women, which we watch these days from famous men like Leo DiCaprio, Kanye West, and trash bag Scott Disick, felt very current and accurate. I felt attacked in their accuracy. Especially towards the end. I love how unwaveringly she states that

  "I’ve always noticed that once you let your looks take over your life, you’re going to spend all the livelong day talking about being too fat, having the wrong hair, and otherwise reducing yourself to the most sluglike common denominator—and if you ask me, someone looking back on the middle class of America during the twentieth century might be horrified to know that all the beautiful girls did nothing but hate their asses, legs, stomachs, and breasts. And what really is shocking about it all, too, the men who committed incest on their own daughters told a lot of them “You’re so fat, no wonder nobody will ever love you.”" — 77% in 'Black Swans' by Eve Babitz

  
  
  I mean, she says so much in the book but her central theme was true tho — you shouldn’t be with someone intimidated by your greatness and the fact that you age and are a continuously maturing human being, also you shouldn’t fuck your friends exes or current partners. Like, pretty standard fare.
  
  I did have issues with some things like: “he was tan but you didn’t want to get too tan less you’re mistaken for the wrong sort in LA and beat over the head by the LAPD.” — I’m paraphrasing but: ma’am… WHAT? Anyway.. you know what.. I’m just gonna continue on..
  
  I got a little bit of Léon Bing vibes from her as well. Voyeuristic type, weirdo vibes. Didn’t surprise me that Babitz thanked her in the thank you/acknowledgments.
  
  It wasn’t too bad. I’d read some more of her work.. RIP to Babitz.
  
  I read this work alongside some Janet Malcolm and Joan Didion to see whose writing style I enjoyed the most. Random reading game. Malcolm represents the East and Didion and Babitz represents the West, North West and South West respectively.. the contrasts in their writing styles, it was like an older white lady East Coast v. West Coast beef in my mind, and I’m not surprised that I’m rocking with Janet Malcolm so hard.
  
  I don’t know how I feel about “the writer” being involved in the observation. Observing themselves in the observation of an event/making both things the focus? It’s a unique writing style apparently popularized by Didion. However, as I’m reading The White Album right now — I just feel like give me the goods, I don’t wanna hear about what you were doing at the same time. Just tell me that story or tell me yours. My brain is tired and I can’t do no mo’!
  
  RIP to the OGs lost since December.
• 
  Jasmin

  Eve Babitz sounds pretty racist in this. Her notions of white superiority and elitism definitely show. I enjoyed reading some of her other works so this was disappointing and I found I had to force myself to finish it.
• 
  mars

  Rich people having rich people problems, but in a good - gatekeep, gaslight, girlboss - kinda way
• 
  julia ♡

  5/5
• 
  Ann

  Hmmmm again, a bit of conflict on this book. I loved Babitz’s style of writing and her humour, but I felt her subject matter is such it feels a little out of touch with other reader demographics. It doesn’t feel like an escapist read either, just people-watching a bunch of people who don’t know how to be better. 3 stars for Babitz writing style, but not much for the content or likeability.
• 
  Kim

  i want to live in eve’s sexy sexy hollywood
• 
  Amanda • thebookinmytote

  I loved this book 🥲 ⁣
  ⁣
  These stories are definitely written as memoir essays but for some reason are classified as fiction stories but I’ve read that might have been for legal reasons because she used peoples names? ⁣
  ⁣
  Nevertheless I enjoyed this book so much and had such a great time reading it. I found myself laughing out loud so many times with Eve’s witty remarks and general sense of humor. ⁣
  ⁣
  I can’t wait to continue reading books written by her.
• 
  Tasnim

  "Sometimes we'd talk for what seemed like days and then we'd start kissing, and things would lapse into that parallel universe you can only find in a place where they leave you alone and you're not home."
• 
  indy

  A.K.A NO 1 HOT GIRL READING MATERIAL
  
  this is the kind of book evelyn hugo would read in her spare time I mean SHE'S AN ICON THAT MISS EVE!
• 
  Phoebe

  This was my first book from Babitz, and it didn’t disappoint! Babitz’s writing is so effortless and it’s the type of book that lingers in you after reading it. I felt like I was stuck in a reverie, visualising 90s L.A through Babitz’ insights. I’d definitely pick more of her works in the future!