Customer Reviews

The New Yorkers: A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is about people, about the Upper West Side in New York City, and about the effects of dogs on people. I am a person, I lived a dozen years on the Upper West Side, and dogs have profoundly affected me, so I feel comfortable in saying that the book is "truer" further along that list (i.e., truer about dogs on people, a bit off on people, somewhere in between on the Upper West Side).

Yet, true or not, the stories in the book are heartwarming and, at times, very, very funny. Schine tells her stories by switching between the perspectives of her different characters, and sometimes reporting their stream-of-conciousness thoughts, which provides opportunities for humorous contradictions, foibles, and slice of life moments. If you're familiar with Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City," this is sort of an east-coast, 21st century version. "Delightful" would be my single word description.

"New York, New York, It's a wonderful town!" Composers sing New York's praises, poets rhyme its virtues, diarists trace adventures there, and authors set tales in this iconic city. Cathleen Schine, author of The Love Letter, has written another billet-doux with The New Yorkers, a brilliant, comic take on one city block in Manhattan and those who live there.

Said block is just a short stroll from Central Park which, of course, made it a favorite of dog owners and professional dog walkers. "...so the street, not distinguished by great beauty to begin with, was not terribly clean either. And yet, it was the loveliest street I have ever lived on. And the most interesting."

It is, indeed, the most interesting as it is home to school teachers, eccentrics the retired, up-and-coming wannabes, the homeless, and all manner of outre characters, each drawn with perception and precision by this accomplished author.

Jody, known by her colleagues as "Good Old Jody," has lived in her studio apartment for 20 years. It is there that she endures sleepless nights then greets the day with a smile. A spinster, as she sometimes thinks of herself, she decides to get a cat. However, when she visits the ASPCA she finds an aged pit bull mix who had been found somewhere in the Bronx. A female, the dog is huge with a great lolling tongue and Jody names her Beatrice.

On a particularly cold, icy day Jody is walking Beatrice when she sees Everett, another block dweller. He is a man of 50, divorced, bored, depressed, despite Prozac, but possessed of a stunning smile. Jody immediately falls in love, and takes to daily walks with the bow legged Beatrice past Everett's door.

Polly is a young woman who, as a child was awed by the sound of her own voice. She is pretty, demanding and suffering from a love affair gone terribly wrong. She moves onto the block when she discovers an abandoned puppy in an apartment closet. It's not long before her brother, George, shares the apartment with her and the puppy, now known as Howdy.

"George, twenty-eight years old, had been a child prodigy. No one knew it. Except George." When we meet him he still has not discovered his exact area of expertise.

Then, there is Simon, who lives in a ground floor one bedroom apartment. He is 48, and takes the subway to work every day, where he labors as "an asocial social worker in the far-off fields of Riverdale and carried a briefcase swollen with files pertaining to those whom he thought of as the unfortunate, the unhappy, and the unkempt."

There are more characters, of course, each finely painted, all memorable, and very human. As the days pass the lives of these people intersect in different ways, and we are privy to their thoughts and aspirations, their successes and their failures.

The New Yorkers is fun, sophisticated, revealing. Cathleen Schine tells a doggone good story - don't miss it!

- Gail Cooke

Every block of New York City has a story or two or three to tell. Cathleen Schine has selected an upper West Side street near Central Park and lets us move into the apartments of the dog lovers and dog haters who inhabit this not very pretty and terribly dirty piece of Manhattan.

You don't have to have any particular feelings about dogs to love this story of New Yorkers who interact and co-exist in their neighborhood. Each has a story to tell and some are poignant, some are witty, but all are endearing in their own special way and will captivate the reader. Schine has enabled us to pull a chair up to a window and peek into these different lives and observe a year in which they play out their daily rituals.

Jody, the self-proclaimed spinster, decides to get a cat and make her spinsterhood complete. Instead, she is charmed by an aging pit bull mix she christens Beatrice. Everett, an aging 50-something male still bitter over his divorce, has one great attribute---a smile that lights up an area and draws women to him. Polly, a demanding 20-something, is wallowing in the misery of a love affair gone wrong and not yet ready to move on from her former boyfriend's rejection. When she moves into the neighborhood, she finds a dog abandoned in the closet and names him Howdy. She then manipulates her brother to share expenses with her. Brother George is stumbling through life while viewing himself as a child prodigy still searching for his area of expertise. By the end of the year, you just know that things will work out well for George. Simon, the lonely and asocial social worker, lives the year solely for the joy that the month of November gives him. Can his life ever encompass more than one month of fox hunting in Virginia? Doris is a schoolteacher who hates dogs and the messes they are depositing on her street. She dedicates her life to ridding the neighborhood of canines and goes to battle with Jamie, the gay restaurant owner who welcomes dogs and their owners into his café.

Schine gives us memorable characters and a story that excels with their personalities and foibles. There are people you will take to heart and people you will love to hate, but each is a magnificently drawn creation that contributes to this compelling read. Comforting and cozy, this is a feel-good love letter about New Yorkers and people everywhere who search for love in their humdrum, everyday existence.

This was a sweet story, simply told, about a group of New Yorkers and how they interact and affect one another: Jody, a cheerful woman in her late 30s who should be played by Meg Ryan in the movie version; Jamie, a charming gay restaurateur; Everett, an aloof but well-meaning bachelor; Simon, a social worker whose heart is in Virginia; Polly, a young woman with an especially commanding voice; and George, Polly's feckless but lovable brother. The book follows these characters' emotional growth and relationships over the course of a year.

I enjoyed this book immensely, despite its slow pace. And it didn't really matter, because it's the kind of novel you want to savor. I was sorry when it ended.

What a charming summer read. I started the book and read it in one day laying on the couch. I was transported to New York City and the block on the upper west side where the charm of the connections pets make for people, comes alive. The novel is so sweet and each character is rich. I think it would be a great "new york " movie shot in the style of the old Tom Ewell/Marilyn Monroe movie "The Seven Year Itch". My book group is reading it too and I know everyone will love it.

Simply put: I adored this book. It is funny, elegant, beautifully observed, lovingly rendered and utterly satisfying--a valentine to New York City. If you are a Laurie Colwin fan (especially if you hold HAPPY ALL THE TIME very dear) then you'll love THE NEW YORKERS. What a pleasure. I recommend it to everyone.

As a native New Yorker and avid dog lover who spent most of her life on the Upper West Side, I really wanted to love this book. Unfortunately, I could not. In a city, and especially a neighborhood, filled with some of the most intriguing human beings on the planet, the author has managed to portray a group of boring, unsympathetic characters, who could have lived anywhere in the world. While the author was lucky enough to hook a major publisher, she displays some of the major writing sins that world be death to a novice writer's career. She head hops, without warning from character to character, with no sense of logic or continuity. This book was not worth .99, let alone 9.99.

I bought this book because I love dogs; I ended up adoring this book because I love top-notch literature. This is a gorgeous, beautifully drawn comedy of manners where characters, rather than a fast paced plot, drive the narrative. I must say that as much as I read, I tend to write reviews for only those books I love. This is one of those books. Funny, moving, alive -- this is the sort of book that makes it hard to start another; you know it will take quite some time to find a book that measures up.

Ken Harvey (author of "if you were with me everything would be all right")

I really wanted to love this book. I mean, it's about two of my favourite things: New York and dogs, and the back described it as "an enchanting comedy of manners." It wasn't bad, at all, it just didn't grab me. I didn't like the characters enough to care whether or not they ultimately found love or happiness. To be fair to Ms Schine, I think perhaps my reading habits are more at fault than the book itself. My busy schedule means I rarely get to read except for last thing at night, in bed. By then I'm exhausted. A book like The New Yorkers, with its slow and gentle growth and ensemble cast, is perhaps beyond my night-reading intellectual capacity. The book got overtaken by others on my to-read list that sent me to slumber with more to hook into my dreams, so I didn't finish it. Perhaps one day, when life slows down again, I'll pick The New Yorkers back up and make friends.

I expected to LOVE this book. Hey, take dogs, a great city and some interesting characters and what's not to like, right? Well, see, you don't LOVE the characters. They are 'ok' and the book is 'ok.' Not, gee i can't wait to share this with all my friends great. This one fell short of my expectations. An easy read that won't get you emotionally involved with the lives of the characters. So, if that is what you are looking for, this is your book.