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cbetch's review
4.0
This book didn't make a lot of sense to me when I read it before going to New York. It's a short essay on what New York is, and what it was when White wrote it in the mid 1900s. And much like the way you can't understand the city without having been there, you also can't fully appreciate this writing until having experienced it.
I was only in New York for a short amount of time, so by no means do I have the experience with the city that White had when he shared about it in his writing, but having been there for a short amount of time, I see what inspired him to write a piece on it. The city is a place that instills so much thought, wonder and awe, it is almost impossible to be able to move on without discussing, writing or capturing your admiration and fixation on the city.
I will say, before I went, I read a lot of this essay as a pessimistic view of the city. Between the remarks of its smell, or the way different people interact with the city. Or the loneliness it welcomes. I was a little concerned about what my experience would be. I knew there was a reason people liked Manhattan, but it didn't feel like that's what I was reading about. And I think that is what is so cool about this writing. Now having been there, I feel it accurately represents the struggles and downfalls of the city while simultaneously communicating how incredible is. The thing about New York is there is so much juxtaposition. There is this feeling of a place so grand and admired, while there is also this underlying tone of people experiencing their own mundane. It's this forest of concrete buildings unlike any other place, and yet somehow from the ground it feels like a collection of streets, beautiful and filled with life, but also with garbage and the smells of sewers. And this book captures that so beautifully. It captures the life of a new yorker something few of us will ever get to experience. It captures the way different people have different experiences with the city. The people for whom Manhattan is their original city, those who commute in to work, and those that see the city as the goal they've achieved, their final destination. The book touches on the incredible diversity and rich culture that lives in New York. The way that people can exist within it, isolated from one another and the events going on within it. The book truly captures the complexity and the beauty of this place. For what it was 70 years ago. It is so interesting to have experienced it recently, and be able to notice the things the have changed it since then, the places that have more meaning now, the people that have cycled into new roles as commuters, natives and awe filled, newly established new yorkers. It was amazing to look and see the events that have changed the city, 9/11 and even covid. But to continue to see how despite these formative and tough battles, the heart, the juxtaposition and the life of New York remains, in such a similar way as to how E.B. White experienced it.
I was only in New York for a short amount of time, so by no means do I have the experience with the city that White had when he shared about it in his writing, but having been there for a short amount of time, I see what inspired him to write a piece on it. The city is a place that instills so much thought, wonder and awe, it is almost impossible to be able to move on without discussing, writing or capturing your admiration and fixation on the city.
I will say, before I went, I read a lot of this essay as a pessimistic view of the city. Between the remarks of its smell, or the way different people interact with the city. Or the loneliness it welcomes. I was a little concerned about what my experience would be. I knew there was a reason people liked Manhattan, but it didn't feel like that's what I was reading about. And I think that is what is so cool about this writing. Now having been there, I feel it accurately represents the struggles and downfalls of the city while simultaneously communicating how incredible is. The thing about New York is there is so much juxtaposition. There is this feeling of a place so grand and admired, while there is also this underlying tone of people experiencing their own mundane. It's this forest of concrete buildings unlike any other place, and yet somehow from the ground it feels like a collection of streets, beautiful and filled with life, but also with garbage and the smells of sewers. And this book captures that so beautifully. It captures the life of a new yorker something few of us will ever get to experience. It captures the way different people have different experiences with the city. The people for whom Manhattan is their original city, those who commute in to work, and those that see the city as the goal they've achieved, their final destination. The book touches on the incredible diversity and rich culture that lives in New York. The way that people can exist within it, isolated from one another and the events going on within it. The book truly captures the complexity and the beauty of this place. For what it was 70 years ago. It is so interesting to have experienced it recently, and be able to notice the things the have changed it since then, the places that have more meaning now, the people that have cycled into new roles as commuters, natives and awe filled, newly established new yorkers. It was amazing to look and see the events that have changed the city, 9/11 and even covid. But to continue to see how despite these formative and tough battles, the heart, the juxtaposition and the life of New York remains, in such a similar way as to how E.B. White experienced it.
mgouker's review
4.0
White has nostalgia for times that may not have been better. He describes a very different and oddly similar city. Great prose. The parts that change aren't the important ones.
chd7's review
5.0
Brilliant, prescient essay on New York. Having only visited once, I have little knowledge of the New York, but this essay conjures up such painterly images of the city that I feel the need to revisit, despite the essay having been written 69 years ago.
lanceschaubert's review
5.0
Misleading title: here is a book. But it captured the spirit of NYC perfectly so 10/10
bobbo49's review
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Written in 1948, this long essay/love letter to New York City by E.B. White (introduction by his stepson, Roger Angell) still resonates. White had lived and worked in the City, and his return for a visit is filled with reflections on everything that makes the place so unique - much of which has well survived for 75 years since the writing. And the haunting "intimation of mortality", imagining that "a single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this fantasy, burn the towers . . . " is matched by White's optimism that the City can, instead, serve as a model for a better future.
prettyboypercy's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
it's a really quick, introspective look at someone who left, then returned to a place. it's written with a certain balance of resentment and reverence that one can only have for a home
tschmitty's review
4.0
E.B. White writes of a New York that is vaguely familiar and also one from the past. He also hauntingly writes of fears of planes hitting buildings and flames of destruction. A reflective work of a place I enjoy to visit.