80 — Whit Johnston

Whit Johnston's first novel is a witty tale told through the fictional diary entries of one Mary Louise Weeks (ML for short), a struggling photographer and, inadvertently, brilliant social chronicler. Tinged with a certain wistfulness for a Manhattan since lost, 80 is a subtle and nuanced reminder of how much the city and its culture have changed since those final months leading up to the onset of Reagan's “Morning in America.” Careening from one lackluster photo session to the next, ML scours the city from the depths of the Bowery to uptown penthouses; from a midtown Diane Arbus exhibit to West Village s-and-m dens, in search of inspiration, authenticity, and a reason to go on. Written with the candor and intimacy encountered only in a diary, and played out against the backdrop of cameos by the likes of John Belushi, Wendy O. Williams, and Keith Haring, ML's dead aim at the hypocrisies of art, commerce, and the self is taken with humor and compassion, in the midst of an uproarious moment in time. 80 is a wryly-incisive debut -- an engrossing reminder of the end of an era in New York's downtown scene.