Reviews

Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell

mallegar's review

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slow-paced

3.25

mhsenglish's review

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informative lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

stuporfly's review

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5.0

Truly wonderful collection of stories that take place in the greatest city in the world.

wdudley89's review

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3.0

I gave up on this book, which is rare for me. Mitchell’s writing might have been better enjoyed in its original form, as a series of pieces in the New Yorker, consumed every few months or so, rather than as a 700-page book. Some of his profiles of quirky characters are interesting, but I did not find that they collectively enhanced my understanding of 1930s and 40s America sufficiently to justify the effort of ploughing through them all. Mitchell’s prose is solid, but not elegant or varied or witty. When I found myself skimming, I decided my time would be better spent with other books.

jedwardsusc's review against another edition

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5.0

Simply one of the greatest American writers.

audaciaray's review

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4.0

While I was in college and for a few years after, I was deeply obsessed with reading books about NYC's social and cultural history. I'm not sure how I missed this one. I'm glad I finally read it. Mitchell's writing is super descriptive and he develops character studies well enough that many of them feel timeless - well, timeless if you know NYC and its characters. But there is also fascinating stuff about a New York that is truly lost. I was especially taken with the writing about food - not restaurants, but the guys who were clammers, the guys who collected oysters, the family that ran a terrapin farm on Long Island. NYC's ecosystem has changed so, so much in the last 80 years.

carrieliza's review

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3.0

This is an interesting collection of old school NYC writing. While I did appreciate a lot of the pieces, I just wasn't really drawn to the book as a whole. Took a while to get through some of it, but that's ok.

misajane79's review

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4.0

I confess that I didn't read every page--the fishing descriptions got a little old. And it's such a big book that I did get overwhelmed at times.
But the writing is the kind that you can wrap yourself up in. Mitchell's character studies can't be beat, and it's a wonderful slice of New York and American history.
I only wish I had discovered him in smaller pieces!

zkendall's review

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Interesting characters, but not interesting enough.

earlyandalone's review against another edition

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This was such an interesting and different read for me. It's tales of old New York—not gritty 1970s murdery NYC, but OLD New York, like pre-television New York. Mitchell was adept at profiling characters, the kinds of characters that are more rare in New York now if only because they can no longer afford to live there. Those were the pieces I liked best, the pieces exploring people and their environments. As the book progressed, I lost interest a bit-especially in the long pieces about the fishing culture of Long Island, and by the time I reached Joe Gould's Secret, my patience for Joe Gould had long been exhausted. But this was a transporting read during the pandemic, a time when I very much wanted to be transported.