Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir (20th Anniversary!) by Janice Erlbaum

"Just two hours ago, I had been heating up some lentil soup at my mom’s in Brooklyn, thinking I’d eat it and maybe read some Edith Wharton before bed. Now here I was at a runaway shelter, staring at a nun’s mustache and wondering where I was going to spend the rest of my adolescence."

A wry, mesmerizing portrait of being underprivileged, underage, and underdressed in 1980s New York City, Girlbomb provides an unflinching look at street life, survival sex, female friendships, and first loves.

• Paperback
• 272 pages
• In print continuously since 2006
• Includes 20th anniversary letter from the author (a paper letter inserted into the book), exclusive to GetBullish!

Synopsis

At fifteen, sick of her unbearable and increasingly dangerous home life, Janice Erlbaum walked out of her family’s Brooklyn apartment and didn’t look back.

From her first frightening night at a shelter, Janice knew she was in over her head. She was beaten up, shaken down, and nearly stabbed by a pregnant girl. But it was still better than living at home. 

As Janice slipped further into street life, she nevertheless attended high school, harbored crushes, and even played the lead in the spring musical. She also roamed the streets, clubs, bars, and parks of New York City with her two best girlfriends, on the prowl for hard drugs and boys on skateboards.

Together they scored coke at Danceteria, smoked angel dust in East Village squats, commiserated over their crazy mothers, and slept with one another’s boyfriends on a regular basis.

About the Author

Janice Erlbaum is the author of Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir and Have You Found Her, which was named one of the New York Public Library’s 25 Books to Remember.

A former columnist for BUST magazine, she lives in New York and Amsterdam with her partner Bill Scurry.

GIRLBOMB, the story of Erlbaum’s halfway homeless teenage years in New York City, has sold over 75,000 copies to date, has stayed in print for twenty years, and continues to win new readers twenty years after its publication. You can find her at janiceerlbaum.com

Editorial Note

"I met Janice in 2009 at a writing conference, where she was a speaker and I was an attendee. I asked some dorky question and we became friends. Over 15 years and a handful of books later, Girlbomb has turned 20, and I'm so pleased to bring this offering – with its 1980s nostalgia, and so specifically rooted in New York – to GetBullish. The letter was my idea - enjoy!"

Jen D.
Owner