Reviews for Writing New York: A Literary Anthology

The average rating for Writing New York: A Literary Anthology based on 4 reviews is 4.25 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-09-25 00:00:00 Elsie G Saito The pieces in this anthology are quintessential vignettes that illuminate a lot of really impactful and insightful aspects of New York. It's a pretty solid collection, each piece has some sort of significance, whether it be historical, stylistic, or even in the way the text reflects the city and the themes it tries to isolate. A very interesting read!

Review # 2 was written on 2010-02-26 00:00:00 Amy K Rider An amazing and exhaustive collection of NY stories. I keep checking it out from the library: must buy a copy.

Review # 3 was written on 2020-05-22 00:00:00 Metral Suke "The ragged, slate-blue cumulus clouds that gathered over the horizon left open patches for the light of the waning sun to shine through, and finally, as I reached the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge, the sunlight spread across the sky, forming a halo around the jagged mountain of skyscrapers, with the darkened loft buildings and warehouses huddling below in the foreground. The towers topped by the golden pinnacles of the new Woolworth Building, still caught the light as it began to ebb away. Three-quarters of the way across the Bridge I saw the skyscrapers in the deepening darkness become slowly honeycombed with lights until, before I reached the Manhattan end, these buildings piled up in a dazzling mass against the indigo sky." - Lewis Mumford, "Sketches From Life" "Writing New York: A Literary Anthology" is an intimidating, massive chunk of a book, fitting for its subject, New York City. The book is 1,050 pages. But, the journey is well worth it. New York City has the most interesting, complicated, horrible, and wonderful past of any other city in the U.S., and all writers who spend time there, whether they cut their teeth on the subway or are just passing through, have a strong opinion of it. Beginning with the observations of Washington Irving and snaking through history up to the point of this anthology's publication in the 1990's, the reader is invited into the steely streets and the private moments of people's lives. Dark and dreadful tenements, smoky nightclubs, back alleys, Battery Park, Coney Island, the Brooklyn Ferry, Harlem, the 1939 World's Fair. It's all here and waiting. Writers like Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, Walt Whitman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, E.B. White, William Carlos Williams, Alfred Kazin, Mario Puzo, Joan Didion, Allen Ginsberg, Elizabeth Hardwick, Lewis Mumford, Ralph Ellison, and Vivian Gornick, along with many others, share their memories of this great city and teach us about its past and its character along the way. It was a challenge to get through, taking me over a month, but when I read the last page, I found myself both surprised and a little sad. I feel like I was there with these people, experiencing what they were and seeing New York through their eyes. Their memories are now a part of me. Even though this was a book I checked out from the library before the pandemic hit, I plan to purchase a copy of it for my own shelves. My only regret is that it's over.

Review # 4 was written on 2013-09-22 00:00:00 Christopher Shadwick Epic love letter to my favorite city.