Customer Reviews

The Good People of New York

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

That could have been the ad that resulted in the pairing of New Yorker Roz Rosenzweig and Edwin Anderson - and the result is this marvel of a book by Thisbe Nissen. From the first page, I was smitten with the couple and the writing, which is as smart, sassy, funny and quick-paced as New York itself. A sample bit, as Roz and Edwin are driving home to meet his family, including mother Esther, very early one morning: Edwin said....."Esther's up and at 'em by five. She'll probably have breakfast made already."... "Oh, good lord" Roz moaned. Edwin:"Probably not best to take the Lord's name in vain around her either, especially at this hour of the day." Roz: "Jesus, I forgot.".... "Jesus, we're in trouble" Edwin said to the sky. One more thing about this delightful novel: if you've ever read and enjoyed the late writer Laurie Colwin's books you'll definitely find similarities here, as this is somewhat a comedy of manners, a thinking person's guide to the intricacies of the human heart, full of style and wit.

I don't know why, but the Iowa Writers' Workshop produces some of the best writing in America, and as far as style goes, Thisbe Nissen is no exception. Her phrasing is beautiful--a memory that aches like a death, for instance. Her dialogue is good. Where the novel falls down is the story and characters, about two-thirds of the way through. The book simply goes nowhere. Characters who start out being major players drop out and either are never heard of again or briefly described in an irrelevant incident. I thought Edwin was a leading role, it seems all he was there for was to be the father of Miranda. Roz could have gone to a sperm bank. What happened to good friend Fran who was so close to Miranda and at whose party Roz met Edwin? She just disappears. What is the point of that Christmas scene in Nebraska where we get the life story of Kathy and Duane, Shauna and Rod, little Brittney and all the others? To show the contrast with Manhattan? What happens to little Gert, who makes such an impression on Roz, she names her daughter after her? What happens to Miranda's budding acting career? Roz is a lawyer in an interesting field, but we never hear about her work or her clients or her friends. This is one of those books where I finish the last page and ask myself what this was supposed to say to me.

I'd been waiting for this paperback for a long while. I thought the book sounded fascinating. And indeed, parts of it are. Feeling generous, I gave it four stars. I found parts of it be not well played (characters fade away--time shifts too quickly). In other parts of the book, I was geniunely moved by the characters and their traumas. There is a sense of growth--particularly in Roz and Miranda (Roz most of all, who becomes just a wonderful person--we see that Miranda is missing out during her rebellious years). Other plot twists I might have done without, but still, that is how life isn't it? We can't pick and choose what happens. Nissen seems to have drawn on some of her real life (as she hints at in her acknowledgements) and it may well be unfair to judge her twists and turns, particulalry if they are real. PErsonally, I liked Edwin and Darrin a great deal and would ahve liked to hear more from them. At it's heart, this is a story about mother and daughter. Being neither a mother or daughter, I might not be the best to comment on this book--however, in the end (and I Loved the END) they are indeed good people. And it is a good, but not great, book.

This book tells a real life story about the trials and tribulations of marriage, friendship and coming of age--whether of mother, daughter, father or friends and how we do not always know where life will lead. Other reviews have said it is superficial--it's not--it is a simple story that illuminates, quietly, that life is about choices. There were some very touching observations that show that we all have wisdom and that while each character is different, we can learn from all of them.

I thought this book was a very enjoyable read; the characters were all likeable, but not simple or merely comic. There's a warmth to this book that seems to be missing in a lot of comtemporary fiction. It reminded me a little of Nora Ephron's work. Funny, with a real heart at the center.

As someone who lives in New York myself, and having read some positive press about Ms. Nissen, I was excited to pick up this book. While I found the characters, especially Roz and Miranda (the mother and daughter respectively) to be very realistic and easy to relate to on some levels, I felt that Miranda was vastly more interesting and that much more could have been done to demonstrate the effect that her parents relationship and her mother's actions had on her life.

I too, found the ending to this book unusually abrupt and disappointing. I think that much more could be written about the woman that Miranda was becoming and that the ending cut things off just as they were really getting interesting.

However, for a first novel, Ms. Nissen certainly entertained me and kept my attention, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

I thought this book was great! The beginning was a little slow, but it picked up quickly and soon I couldn't put it down. Being a young mom myself with a very little girl, I bought this book expecting it to be mostly the trials and tribulations of Roz, the mother, and of course she was a huge part of the novel. However, as the story unfolded, it turned out to be about her daughter Miranda, going through the hills and valleys of growing up with her mom in NYC. I found her story to be very intriguing, very exciting, with lots of little surprises. Several times this book made me laugh out loud, and it also made me weep. I think that maybe the end of the story was a little abrupt, as if the writer was running out of space and had to finish the story or something. But still I give it four stars because I enjoyed the book so thoroughly.

I picked up "The Good People Of New York," recently while visiting Manhattan. Having been born in NYC and sharing the same first name with the lead character, Roz, I was intrigued. My enthusiasm, however, began to wane as I delved into the novel. I never had the feeling the pages touched anything related to the soul of New York. A casual reference to "Carvel" or an "egg cream" or "the Catskills" or even "Park Slope" do not do much to transport me from California back to the heart of Soho or Tribeca or especially not under the elevated trains in Brighton Beach. Maybe I needed the aroma of a Nathan's hot dog to leap from the pages...I am not sure. But I know I might just as well been in San Antonio. Yes, they have good folks and museums too!

As other reviewers have said, the characters were not there for the long haul. Why did we go to Nebraska for Christmas and learn about the people we would not hear from again? We were told about the characters but we never saw them unfold before our eyes. We are told Edwin left but little about why? How did Roz and Adele Rosenzweig get to be in the place we find them? How did Roz become so flip? I was surprised to hear she had a child and then went to law school. I never saw those two blessed events coming. But of course, we do not stay with any character or situation for too long, as Ms. Nissen quickly moves to and then from a whole host of people and life altering situations in faster than a New York second.....Nephew Josh and his Mom, Mona, are in and out speedier than the turn of a subway stile at rush hour...They join the hasty arrivals and departures of Steve, his ex-wife, his son, Ben and so on and so on and so on.

I did like Miranda. She turned out to be a major character. Sadly, I wish I got to know a bit more of what motivated her...

I completed the book. It is a fast read but, in my opinion, clearly a disappointment, especially for those of us who love the city Miranda and Roz call home....

Nissen's minimalist writing technique and the steady evolution of the book from the point of view of Edwin Anderson, Nebraska lawyer in the big city to his first wife, Roz Rosenzweig, New York Jew, and finally to their daughter Miranda, seems to have confused some reviewers, but it captivated this one.

The book is meant to make you supply the gaps between the stories and the points of view with your own thoughts and conjectures. Roz and Edwin meet cute, marry cute, become fish out of water in each's milieu, conceive Miranda and try to raise her in the big city. Edwin's disappointment with his own career choices eventually break up the marriage, around the time Miranda is first starting at a ritzy summer camp, and Miranda becomes a precocious latchkey kid. We follow her first three romances, one with a boy at camp, one with the son of her orthodontist, who breaks Roz's heart a second time, and finally with her English teacher in her senior year. And finally we end with her in college in Brown, her mother happy with a man she met at the library and her friend Darrin living in New York watching over them.

I don't see Nissen as having some great literary point here, but rather exploring issues about love and marriage and growing up, both by children and adults, in an indirect and wonderfully written way. The book in may ways gives you what you bring to it, requiring the reader to supply his or her own thoughts and experiences to understand its themes. It is an easy book to read and a difficult book to understand. I enjoyed it immensely.

Thisbe's prose, as seen in Out of the Girls' Room and Into the Night, and now here in The Good People, is so infectiously high-spirited that the first time through you'll love it for the humor and the fun. The second time through (or the first, if you're able to restrain yourself and not go full speed ahead), you'll appreciate her insights into why people act as they do, her exquisite eye for detail, her seemingly inexhaustible interest in relationships, &c. Thisbe creates a wonderful mix of wit and wistfulness. These characters and their story are haunting.