The New Yorkers: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "We'll begin our story with Jody..." (more)
Key Phrases: big white dog, New York, City Council, Gian Carlo (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Schine dispatches a love letter to New Yorkers and the dogs who own them in her seventh novel (after She Is Me), an ensemble novel centered on an Upper West Side street. Jody, a lonely 39-year-old musician/music teacher who's lived in the same rent-controlled studio since college, rescues a pit bull mix named Beatrice from the ASPCA. After eight months of blissful pet ownership, Jody bumps into divorced 50-year-old Everett while walking Beatrice and falls in love with the stranger after he shoots her a smile. George, a 28-year-old waiter, moves into the neighborhood when his younger sister, Polly, rents an apartment in Everett's building and acquires the puppy left behind by the last tenant. (He hanged himself; she names the pup Howdy.) Down the street live Simon, a reclusive social worker whose only joy in life is foxhunting, and Doris, an embittered, prep-school guidance counselor with no love lost for pooches. Orbits slowly begin to overlap as winter gives way to spring and then the summer of the 2003 blackout—an event that sends a few characters in unexpected directions. It may not play as well west of the Hudson, but the hometown dog-run crowd will find this heartfelt tribute curiously endearing. (May)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

"If Cathleen Schine's The New Yorkers were a movie, it would be directed by Nora Ephron and would feature lots of fuzzy sweaters and adorable close-ups of dogs," opines the Seattle Times. Critics agree that while sweet and engaging enough, The New Yorkers is not riveting, although it does offer an insightful, microcosmic view of urban alienation. Each character taken individually is somewhat unremarkable; it's the dogs that enliven their owners and, by extension, their owners' abilities to connect. Despite Schine's sophisticated wit, a few reviewers cited some self-conscious narrative insertions and clichés. But in this inside view of one block's dynamics, it's clear that "Only dog love ... is a straight line from start to finish" (Boston Globe).
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition. 1 in number line edition (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374221839
• ISBN-13: 978-0374221836
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #421,417 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh Out Loud Funny --- and Touching, May 12, 2007

By	Middle-aged Professor (NY'er living in Ohio) - See all my reviews

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.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars INVENTIVE, SOPHISTICATED, WITTY, May 1, 2007

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

"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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read- Could not put it down!, June 11, 2007

By	Oscar's Mom - See all my reviews

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.