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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Yah so this book is actually the closest someone has gotten to describing what living in a place that is revered and actually living there is. So much love and hate and jealousy and bitterness and heartwarming all through people watching. I love you New York and I love you Toronto and I love you Kingston.
dark
funny
I enjoy Colson Whitehead’s writing so much! I grew up in New Jersey and found this depiction of New York as accurate as one can assume who didn’t live there.
Brief but entertaining, a good thing to read whilst flying into JFK!
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I have spent only four days in New York City, but they occurred at the most extraordinary moment in the city's recent history — a couple of weeks after 9/11 — and they were enough to persuade me that, in fact, yes, New York is the greatest city in the world. Limited though my experience is, I recognize the city that welcomed me in these essays, written with Whitehead's meticulous, painstaking craftsmanship and eye for detail but pouring forth from the page as breathlessly as stream of consciousness or scat or beat poetry or hip-hop. It makes me want to return.
Like reading a Godfrey Reggio movie, all it needed was a Philip Glass soundtrack.
I hate leaving Perth but I love to read hugely talented writers passionately explain what it is like to inhabit their own town and the world agrees that Colson Whitehead is a hugely talented writer and The Colossus of New York proves that he is a true New Yorker.
A wonderful reading experience.
I hate leaving Perth but I love to read hugely talented writers passionately explain what it is like to inhabit their own town and the world agrees that Colson Whitehead is a hugely talented writer and The Colossus of New York proves that he is a true New Yorker.
A wonderful reading experience.
fast-paced
reflective
medium-paced
I think this smallish collection of bits and pieces of essays about New York was intentionally written in a jumpy kind of way - perfect for subway rides and New York city attention spans.
The great thing about The Colossus of New York is that it hits where it counts. Every bit is familiar - it captures the anxiety, joy, loneliness, and amazement of living in this great city. So many of the things I read in this little book have happened to me, or reflect conversations I've had with my family and friends:
"Abomination, thy name is Subway. He cannot enter. They flood through turnstiles, hips banging rods, will not let him enter....Everyone things they are more deserving, everything thinks their day has been harder than everyone else's, and everyone is correct." (p. 118)
"The loneliness is the worst, because this knowledge is something that cannot be shared, only suffered. Just as well. Why should anyone else have it easy. Spoken like a true New Yorker." (p. 154)
"So many people running. Is something chasing them. Yes, something different is chasing each of them and gaining slowly. She feels fit and trim. People remove layers one by one the deeper they get into the park....This is his tenth attempt to join the jogging culture. This latest outfit will do the trick. Pant and heave. How much farther. Reservoir of what. Small devices keep track of ingrown miles....One covert says, I'm going to come here every day from now on. It's so refreshing." (p. 42)
"Let the honking commence nanoseconds after the light changes, up and down the ave. Honk all you want, little man, you're not going anywhere." (p. 145)
The notes on the subway and Central Park were my favorites, but there is also a great bit about the city when it rains. Read it if you are feeling like you need to commiserate about the challenges of living here, or if you have moved away and either miss it or need a reminder as to why you hate it. Which are really the same emotion, anyway, New Yorkers love to hate it here.
The great thing about The Colossus of New York is that it hits where it counts. Every bit is familiar - it captures the anxiety, joy, loneliness, and amazement of living in this great city. So many of the things I read in this little book have happened to me, or reflect conversations I've had with my family and friends:
"Abomination, thy name is Subway. He cannot enter. They flood through turnstiles, hips banging rods, will not let him enter....Everyone things they are more deserving, everything thinks their day has been harder than everyone else's, and everyone is correct." (p. 118)
"The loneliness is the worst, because this knowledge is something that cannot be shared, only suffered. Just as well. Why should anyone else have it easy. Spoken like a true New Yorker." (p. 154)
"So many people running. Is something chasing them. Yes, something different is chasing each of them and gaining slowly. She feels fit and trim. People remove layers one by one the deeper they get into the park....This is his tenth attempt to join the jogging culture. This latest outfit will do the trick. Pant and heave. How much farther. Reservoir of what. Small devices keep track of ingrown miles....One covert says, I'm going to come here every day from now on. It's so refreshing." (p. 42)
"Let the honking commence nanoseconds after the light changes, up and down the ave. Honk all you want, little man, you're not going anywhere." (p. 145)
The notes on the subway and Central Park were my favorites, but there is also a great bit about the city when it rains. Read it if you are feeling like you need to commiserate about the challenges of living here, or if you have moved away and either miss it or need a reminder as to why you hate it. Which are really the same emotion, anyway, New Yorkers love to hate it here.