Conceived by Iris Smyles, Photographed by Chris Stein, Edited by Iatrou and Morgan, Music by Julie Ingram
“Iris Smyles has reinvented Sally Bowles and Holly Golightly for the 21st century—with this difference: she inhabits rather than observes her appealing character.”
—Edmund White
“Iris Has Free Time is a hilarious, lyrical, and wise book about youth—its beauty, its folly, and the belief it will go on forever even as it’s slipping away. You will love this book.”
—Diane Keaton
“Entertaining as hell!”
—SF Weekly Read more »
“A powerful and generously written statement about the passage of time and the difficulty of becoming someone you can look at in the mirror every morning.”
—USA Today Read more »
“Such a delight, this book: the perfect frenzied bildungsroman for an era when coming-of-age can be postponed practically to middle age, as funny and sharp as can be but unafraid of seriousness and consequence. It’s The House of Mirth minus the no-way-out tragedy, Bright Lights, Big City for the 21st century, Girls for people who love the deep dive into great prose.”
—Kurt Andersen
“‘Madam Bovary c’est moi,’ Flaubert said... We all might say, ‘Iris is me.’”
—BOMB
“An instant classic… a smart, funny, wise, and sometimes heartbreaking book about a slowly fizzling love affair with youth.”
—Forbes Read more »
“A modern Joyce, a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman.”
—The Rumpus Read more »
“Instant favorite... hilarious high jinks.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
“Smyles, the author not the character, depicts a particular moment in time—that awkward place between being a kid and being an adult—and the results are often hilarious, often tinged with sadness, but always authentic.”
—Booklist
“A darkly comic, affecting portrait of a 20-something with literary ambitions”
—Electric Literature Read more »
“Life Lessons for Starter Adults”—The Wall Street Journal Read more »
“How to Be an Adult”
—The Boston Globe Read more »
“A series of serious one-liner gems, laugh-out-loud hilarity, "no-she-didn't" moments of vicarious embarrassment and truly intelligent philosophical observations. The most believable untrue autobiographical treatise on life, love, liquor and literature you'll have the pleasure of reading this year, or maybe ever.”
—The Coast Read more »
“If Hemingway’s novels are icebergs, drifting majestically through a chilly sea, Iris Smyles’ Iris Has Free Time is a mountain of glitter: iridescent, fabulous, and always changing its shape. It’s a monument to the idea of fun, and is itself a delight.”
—Paul La Farge
“What it means to be an ‘alcoholist,’ the joys and pains of growing up, and how to write seriously about fun.”
—The Fix Read more »
“Which writer would you rather?”
—Huffington Post Read more »
“Delightful, dreamy, witty, sad... makes one think of one’s own youth and folly, and all the folly yet to come, because maybe the unspoken message of this story—and one I agree with—is that we never really grow up.”
—Jonathan Ames
“The notoriously reclusive author of the new novel Iris Has Free Time”
—The Nervous Breakdown Read more »
“In the tradition of Elaine Dundy's Sally Jay Gorce, Kingsly Amis' Lucky Jim, and Truman Capote's Holly Golightly, Iris is a new anti-heroine, a bracingly unique voice treating age-old subjects of love, sex, work and identity with a freshness and originality that will startle and charm.”
—The Kathryn Zox Show Read more »
“This semi-autobiographical account of being a twenty-something makes one overarching point: Nothing lasts forever.”
—Bookish Read more »
“Iris Smyles is my spirit animal.”
—James St. James, author of Party Monster
“Eclectic, funny, fast-paced and also reflective...”
—KGB Bar Lit Read more »
“Iris Smyles has created in “Iris Smyles” an irresistible anti-heroine whose innocent iconoclasm startles and captivates.”
—Frederic Tuten
ELLE Magazine Read more »
“Bright Young Things”
—New York Observer Read more »
“Chic Report”
—The Daily Front Row Read more »
“10 Dazzling Debut Novels to Pick up Now”
—O, The Oprah Magazine Read more »
“Best Damn Books of 2013: Smyles is a bold writer and readers will fall in love with her raucous and quirky style. If Iris Has Free Time was set to music, it would be the anthem of the summer.”
—Best Damn Read more »
“Iris Smyles is Occupied”
—Splice Today Read more »
“10 Books for the Beach That Won’t Embarrass You”
—Levo League Read more »
“Brooklyn Girl”
—New York Magazine Read more »
“So What Exactly is a ‘Brooklyn Girl?’”
—L Magazine Read more »
“Brooklynification”
—Jezebel Read more »
“Bookcase”
—The American Reader Read more »
“Pick of the Week”
—Book Case TV Read more »
“Brooklyn Book Festival Examines the ‘Me’ Generation”
—Daily News Read more »
“Iris Smyles the writer follows a character called Iris Smyles through the awkward stage between adolescence and adulthood in this engaging and entertaining novel.”
—Books and Authors Read more »