--- title: Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter Has a New York State of Mind description: The shifting winds of fortune in the city that never sleeps comprise a special canon, and its latest entrant is Stephanie Danler's debut novel, Sweetbitter.... canonical: https://time.com/4341404/new-york-state-of-mind/ author: Claire Howorth article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-19T10:40:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:40:04.752Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter Has a New York State of Mind og:description: The shifting winds of fortune in the city that never sleeps comprise a special canon, and its latest entrant is Stephanie Danler's debut novel, Sweetbitter.... og:url: https://time.com/4341404/new-york-state-of-mind/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter Has a New York State of Mind twitter:description: The shifting winds of fortune in the city that never sleeps comprise a special canon, and its latest entrant is Stephanie Danler's debut novel, Sweetbitter.... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # New York State of Mind  by [Claire Howorth](https://time.com/author/claire-howorth/)  ## Claire Howorth May 19, 2016 10:40 AM UTC  by [Claire Howorth](https://time.com/author/claire-howorth/)  ## Claire Howorth May 19, 2016 10:40 AM UTC The shifting winds of fortune in the city that never sleeps comprise a special canon, and its latest entrant is Stephanie Danler’s debut novel, _Sweetbitter_. Tess, an urban parvenu and “backwaiter” for a restaurant that reads an awful lot like Union Square Café, where the author once worked, recounts her yearlong story partially in second person, a nod (along with the plentiful cocaine) to Jay McInerney’s _Bright Lights, Big City_. Danler’s ripe prose evokes other city stories too–the broiling sculleries of Anthony Bourdain’s _Kitchen Confidential_ and the bar stench of Richard Price’s _Lush Life_. Tess is so brimming with naive potential that neither devilish bartender Jake nor enigmatic would-be sommelier Simone can resist her. But ingenues can’t stay innocent forever, and Tess’s loss is where _Sweetbitter_ finds success. –CLAIRE HOWORTH ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4341404/new-york-state-of-mind/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4341404/new-york-state-of-mind/"},"headline":"New York State of Mind","datePublished":"2016-05-19T10:40:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:40:04.752Z","description":"The shifting winds of fortune in the city that never sleeps comprise a special canon, and its latest entrant is Stephanie Danler's debut novel, Sweetbitter....","url":"https://time.com/4341404/new-york-state-of-mind/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Claire Howorth","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/claire-howorth/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4341404/new-york-state-of-mind/","name":"New York State of Mind"}}]}] ```