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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Read for school. First assigned summer reading as a college student! yay class of 2023!!!
I am very conflicted about this one. I feel like it'll be in the vein of Catcher in the Rye, in the sense that I have a lukewarm haze in regards to my concrete feelings, which will harden into a firm admiration. The thing is, though, Catcher in the Rye seemed to miss every mark upon initial reading, and it wasn't until I was growing up and was mature enough to admit that I related to Holden that I finally had the "aha!" moment. With this one, not every mark felt missed for me. Some of them felt nearly brilliant, it's portrait of New York, not how it's symbolic for America, but how it's symbolic for Americans. The metaphors throughout, especially the Brooklyn Bridge and Rain chapters, were very intriguing with how they detailed humanity and the city as a whole. It both individualized and unified New Yorkers.
Then, on the other hand, there were lots of swings and misses, and sometimes it definitely felt a bit tedious and condescendingly misguided.
I don't know. My rating is subject to change.
I am very conflicted about this one. I feel like it'll be in the vein of Catcher in the Rye, in the sense that I have a lukewarm haze in regards to my concrete feelings, which will harden into a firm admiration. The thing is, though, Catcher in the Rye seemed to miss every mark upon initial reading, and it wasn't until I was growing up and was mature enough to admit that I related to Holden that I finally had the "aha!" moment. With this one, not every mark felt missed for me. Some of them felt nearly brilliant, it's portrait of New York, not how it's symbolic for America, but how it's symbolic for Americans. The metaphors throughout, especially the Brooklyn Bridge and Rain chapters, were very intriguing with how they detailed humanity and the city as a whole. It both individualized and unified New Yorkers.
Then, on the other hand, there were lots of swings and misses, and sometimes it definitely felt a bit tedious and condescendingly misguided.
I don't know. My rating is subject to change.
what a perfect book to read six months into living in new york.
This is an instant classic, a modern companion for E.B White's [b:Here Is New York|10814|Here is New York|E.B. White|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166334134s/10814.jpg|13435]. Whitehead nails the special ambiance of New York with his unique prose styling. This is one of my favorite New York books.
funny
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Longer review to come, but here's a short first response:
While the narrative style of this short book was confusing at times, I was also intent on determining who was speaking and how they were sharing their brief stories with the reader. Ultimately, I have come to understand this book as a medley (one of no doubt many musical & poetic terms that older reviews have described this book as) of voices we tend to overhear, absorb, and personally inhabit in our own journey through this particular city.
Here you will find a multitude of stories being told through different formal perspectives (yes, I'm talking first, second, and third), whose narrative shifts with every sentence almost as if you have bumped shoulders with someone on the subway or on the street and now the story belongs to them for another handful of words. I also feel like this would be a great read for the attention-deficit reader with little time to invest in a deep dive of character study, or the curious observer who is content with overhearing and occasionally becoming immersed and invested with overheard first-lines, in media res dialogue, and parting remarks of whole scenes we will never fully have context of. You can catch a glimpse of various iterations of the life cycle from birth to breakup to death in the span of a few burroughs.
What manifests from this cacophonous narrative style is a shared, collective culture, a mutual understanding of life in the city that feels somehow embedded in us all, from stranger to native, traveler to transplant. There are many ways to capture the essence of a city in its entirety--and many do not do this well. It all depends on what voices emerge when you learn how to pay attention to them all.
While the narrative style of this short book was confusing at times, I was also intent on determining who was speaking and how they were sharing their brief stories with the reader. Ultimately, I have come to understand this book as a medley (one of no doubt many musical & poetic terms that older reviews have described this book as) of voices we tend to overhear, absorb, and personally inhabit in our own journey through this particular city.
Here you will find a multitude of stories being told through different formal perspectives (yes, I'm talking first, second, and third), whose narrative shifts with every sentence almost as if you have bumped shoulders with someone on the subway or on the street and now the story belongs to them for another handful of words. I also feel like this would be a great read for the attention-deficit reader with little time to invest in a deep dive of character study, or the curious observer who is content with overhearing and occasionally becoming immersed and invested with overheard first-lines, in media res dialogue, and parting remarks of whole scenes we will never fully have context of. You can catch a glimpse of various iterations of the life cycle from birth to breakup to death in the span of a few burroughs.
What manifests from this cacophonous narrative style is a shared, collective culture, a mutual understanding of life in the city that feels somehow embedded in us all, from stranger to native, traveler to transplant. There are many ways to capture the essence of a city in its entirety--and many do not do this well. It all depends on what voices emerge when you learn how to pay attention to them all.
Bill de Blasio should just hand this out in the middle of Washington Square Park. No book has ever capture better, IMO, what a stupid, annoying, wonderful, horrible, effervescent thing it is to live here.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
It can feel a little overdone at times, but so can New York. This is the guide to the city for the newly arrived, the longing-to-leave, the born, the bred, the transplant, the never-leaver. It is beauty, poetry, cacophony, humor, poignancy.
Love you, New York.
Love you, New York.
The only thing better than a book about New York is a book about New York by Colson Whitehead. He is a poet.
" Talking about New York, is a way of talking about the world" - and that is so true when reading this book. It's a series of snippets, observations, thoughts, recordings of life in New York. Organised mostly through geographically concrete locations - the city, assemblies and disassemblies itself across the page. My favourite section was Brooklyn Bridge - where the bridge seemed to breathe and sigh and be a living part of the city. I loved the image of the bridges anchoring the island of Manhattan, refusing to let it drift off. As a city person - I really felt this book and haven't read about the urban experience before in quite so poetic yet grounding, beautiful yet real ways.