After all, the world Babitz depicts in her books of women roaming its streets and weighing their impulses very much remains the same, even if the landscape of the city itself has changed . This is the product of the autobiographical style of her writing which often has a texture more similar to personal nonfiction than fiction, which makes conversations about contemporary events feel naturally woven into her world .

Equally good, if somewhat labored (Babitz's chief stylistic flaw is repetitiousness), is a pair of pieces about learning to tango, being swept up in the dance's 'fearless wrongness': funny, philosophical. It's a model for writing fiction that addresses politics that feels neither didactic nor preachy but natural.

and Esquire, and in the late 1960s, she designed album covers for the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and Linda Ronstadt.

Black Swans is a collection of nine stories that look back on the 1980s—a decade of dreams, drink, and stoned youth turning Republican. In 1997, Babitz was severely injured when ash from a cigar she was smoking ignited her skirt, causing life-threatening third-degree burns over half her body. Babitz’s inimitable voice propels these stories forward, corralling everything that gets in their sex, rage, the Château Marmont, youth, beauty, Jim Morrison, men, women, and black swans. She renders dead-perfect scenarios of contemporary angst, generously imbued with wit and her characters’ hard-won wisdom.A. WOMAN (1981) and BLACK SWANS (1992), and I had worried the interim might have diminished Babitz's skills.

Everything is fine and everyone is supposed to be happy if HE cheats, but if SHE does it she is a hoe! If you are struggling for inspiration try developing a story combining a character from one of your story ideas with a predicament or setting from another.Babitz delivers the anticipated accounts of faltering love affairs and a who's who rundown of Hollywood's social register, but her trademark style steeped in voyeurism is tempered by middle age. For the contemporary reader, the idea that exploring sexuality is mutually exclusive from succeeding professionally feels stale and restrictive.