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Reviews
An Editor's Burial: Journals and Journalism from the New Yorker and Other Magazines by David Brendel
avedon_arcade's review
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Clearly Wes channeled these historic authors so well you’d think they wrote the screenplay themselves.
roseofoulesfame's review
funny
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Picked this up because of The French Dispatch. Witty, interesting writing from some damn talented writers on everything from accidentally getting arrested in Paris to the rats of New York City. A gem.
richieowens's review
funny
informative
medium-paced
3.75
I got this book a month or so before I saw The French Dispatch, and I finished it a month or so after seeing The French Dispatch. In that time, I fell in love with The New Yorker.
One reason I stopped reading this book at some point in 2021 was because I had started subscribing to The New Yorker and thought “I’d rather read from my contemporaries (hah) than from my elders (haha).” I’m glad I did, to be honest. I’m loving every minute of it, and getting the magazine in the mail is often the highlight of my week (hahah).
The stories in here cover everything from rats in New York City to the May 68 student protests in Paris. And a lot in between, but those were my two favorite stories by far. I can’t stop bringing up the rats in conversation. It really changed me.
Wes Anderson definitely has a taste for “the elegant” things in life, and some of these choices really show that. AJ Liebling going off about food bored me. There’s a piece of an art collector that I found interesting and then ultimately it just kept going. This book definitely shows more of “high society” than I enjoy, which is partially why it took me so long to read it. Fortunately, The French Dispatch shows the side of high society that I find most interesting: the side that shows rich people are dumb as shit.
James Baldwin’s essay about being arrested in Paris was also a highlight for me. It was incredibly endearing to have him get arrested and to know that his primary concern was when he was going to get out so he could eat dinner.
I want to move to France and I want to stay in America and I want to start a magazine and I want to read my friends’s writings for the rest of my life.
One reason I stopped reading this book at some point in 2021 was because I had started subscribing to The New Yorker and thought “I’d rather read from my contemporaries (hah) than from my elders (haha).” I’m glad I did, to be honest. I’m loving every minute of it, and getting the magazine in the mail is often the highlight of my week (hahah).
The stories in here cover everything from rats in New York City to the May 68 student protests in Paris. And a lot in between, but those were my two favorite stories by far. I can’t stop bringing up the rats in conversation. It really changed me.
Wes Anderson definitely has a taste for “the elegant” things in life, and some of these choices really show that. AJ Liebling going off about food bored me. There’s a piece of an art collector that I found interesting and then ultimately it just kept going. This book definitely shows more of “high society” than I enjoy, which is partially why it took me so long to read it. Fortunately, The French Dispatch shows the side of high society that I find most interesting: the side that shows rich people are dumb as shit.
James Baldwin’s essay about being arrested in Paris was also a highlight for me. It was incredibly endearing to have him get arrested and to know that his primary concern was when he was going to get out so he could eat dinner.
I want to move to France and I want to stay in America and I want to start a magazine and I want to read my friends’s writings for the rest of my life.