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Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker
New York City is not only The New Yorker magazine's place of origin and its sensibility's lifeblood, it is the heart of American literary culture. Wonderful Town , an anthology of superb short fiction by many of the magazine's most accomplished contributors, celebrates the seventy-five-year marriage between a preeminent publication and its preeminent context with this collection of forty-four of its best stories from (so to speak) home.
East Side? Philip Roth's chronically tormented alter ego Nathan Zuckerman has just moved there, in "Smart Money." West Side? Isaac Bashevis Singer's narrator mingles with the customers in "The Cafeteria" (who debate politics and culture in four or five different languages) and becomes embroiled in an obsessional romance. And downtown, John Updike's Maples have begun their courtship of marital disaster, in "Snowing in Greenwich Village." John Cheever, John O'Hara, Lorrie Moore, Irwin Shaw, Woody Allen, Laurie Colwin, Saul Bellow, J. D. Salinger, Jean Stafford, Vladimir Nabokov--they and many other stellar literary guides to the city will be found in these pages.
Wonderful Town touches on some of the city's famous places and stops at some of its more obscure corners, but the real guidebook in and between its lines is to the hearts and the minds of those who populate the metropolis built by its pages. Like all good fiction, these stories take particular places, particular people, and particular events and turn them into dramas of universal enlightenment and emotional impact. The five boroughs are the five continents. New York is every great and ordinary place. Each life in it, and each life in Wonderful Town, is the life of us all.
East Side? Philip Roth's chronically tormented alter ego Nathan Zuckerman has just moved there, in "Smart Money." West Side? Isaac Bashevis Singer's narrator mingles with the customers in "The Cafeteria" (who debate politics and culture in four or five different languages) and becomes embroiled in an obsessional romance. And downtown, John Updike's Maples have begun their courtship of marital disaster, in "Snowing in Greenwich Village." John Cheever, John O'Hara, Lorrie Moore, Irwin Shaw, Woody Allen, Laurie Colwin, Saul Bellow, J. D. Salinger, Jean Stafford, Vladimir Nabokov--they and many other stellar literary guides to the city will be found in these pages.
Wonderful Town touches on some of the city's famous places and stops at some of its more obscure corners, but the real guidebook in and between its lines is to the hearts and the minds of those who populate the metropolis built by its pages. Like all good fiction, these stories take particular places, particular people, and particular events and turn them into dramas of universal enlightenment and emotional impact. The five boroughs are the five continents. New York is every great and ordinary place. Each life in it, and each life in Wonderful Town, is the life of us all.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published January 11, 2000
152 people are currently reading
1150 people want to read
About the author
David Remnick
220 books388 followersDavid Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer, and magazine editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin s Tomb The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998. He was named Editor of the Year by Advertising Age in 2000. Before joining The New Yorker, Remnick was a reporter and the Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post. He has also served on the New York Public Library’s board of trustees. In 2010 he published his sixth book, The Bridge The Life and Rise of Barack Obama.
Remnick was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of a dentist, Edward C. Remnick, and an art teacher, Barbara (Seigel). He was raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey, in a secular Jewish home with, he has said, “a lot of books around.” He is also childhood friends with comedian Bill Maher. He graduated from Princeton University in 1981 with an A.B. in comparative literature; there, he met writer John McPhee and helped found The Nassau Weekly. Remnick has implied that after college he wanted to write novels, but due to his parents’ illnesses, he needed a paying job—there was no trust fund to rely on. Remnick wanted to be a writer, so he chose a career in journalism, taking a job at The Washington Post. He is married to reporter Esther Fein of The New York Times and has three children, Alex, Noah, and Natasha. He enjoys jazz music and classic cinema and is fluent in Russian.
He began his reporting career at The Washington Post in 1982 shortly after his graduation from Princeton. His first assignment was to cover the United States Football League. After six years, in 1988, he became the newspaper’s Moscow correspondent, which provided him with the material for Lenin's Tomb. He also received the George Polk Award for excellence in journalism.
Remnick became a staff writer at The New Yorker in September, 1992, after ten years at The Washington Post.
Remnick’s 1997 New Yorker article “Kid Dynamite Blows Up,” about boxer Mike Tyson, was nominated for a National Magazine Award. In 1998 he became editor, succeeding Tina Brown. Remnick promoted Hendrik Hertzberg, a former Jimmy Carter speechwriter and former editor of The New Republic, to write the lead pieces in “Talk of the Town,” the magazine’s opening section. In 2005 Remnick earned $1 million for his work as the magazine’s editor.
In 2003 he wrote an editorial supporting the Iraq war in the days when it started. In 2004, for the first time in its 80-year history, The New Yorker endorsed a presidential candidate, John Kerry.
In May 2009, Remnick was featured in a long-form Twitter account of Dan Baum’s career as a New Yorker staff writer. The tweets, written over the course of a week, described the difficult relationship between Baum and Remnick, his editor.
Remnick’s biography of President Barack Obama, The Bridge, was released on April 6, 2010. It features hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and other witnesses to Obama’s rise to the presidency of the United States. The book has been widely reviewed in journals.
In 2010 Remnick lent his support to the campaign urging the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of ordering the murder of her husband by her lover and adultery.
In 2013 Remnick ’81 was the guest speaker at Princeton University Class Day.
Remnick provided guest commentary and contributed to NBC coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia including the opening ceremony and commentary for NBC News.
Remnick was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of a dentist, Edward C. Remnick, and an art teacher, Barbara (Seigel). He was raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey, in a secular Jewish home with, he has said, “a lot of books around.” He is also childhood friends with comedian Bill Maher. He graduated from Princeton University in 1981 with an A.B. in comparative literature; there, he met writer John McPhee and helped found The Nassau Weekly. Remnick has implied that after college he wanted to write novels, but due to his parents’ illnesses, he needed a paying job—there was no trust fund to rely on. Remnick wanted to be a writer, so he chose a career in journalism, taking a job at The Washington Post. He is married to reporter Esther Fein of The New York Times and has three children, Alex, Noah, and Natasha. He enjoys jazz music and classic cinema and is fluent in Russian.
He began his reporting career at The Washington Post in 1982 shortly after his graduation from Princeton. His first assignment was to cover the United States Football League. After six years, in 1988, he became the newspaper’s Moscow correspondent, which provided him with the material for Lenin's Tomb. He also received the George Polk Award for excellence in journalism.
Remnick became a staff writer at The New Yorker in September, 1992, after ten years at The Washington Post.
Remnick’s 1997 New Yorker article “Kid Dynamite Blows Up,” about boxer Mike Tyson, was nominated for a National Magazine Award. In 1998 he became editor, succeeding Tina Brown. Remnick promoted Hendrik Hertzberg, a former Jimmy Carter speechwriter and former editor of The New Republic, to write the lead pieces in “Talk of the Town,” the magazine’s opening section. In 2005 Remnick earned $1 million for his work as the magazine’s editor.
In 2003 he wrote an editorial supporting the Iraq war in the days when it started. In 2004, for the first time in its 80-year history, The New Yorker endorsed a presidential candidate, John Kerry.
In May 2009, Remnick was featured in a long-form Twitter account of Dan Baum’s career as a New Yorker staff writer. The tweets, written over the course of a week, described the difficult relationship between Baum and Remnick, his editor.
Remnick’s biography of President Barack Obama, The Bridge, was released on April 6, 2010. It features hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and other witnesses to Obama’s rise to the presidency of the United States. The book has been widely reviewed in journals.
In 2010 Remnick lent his support to the campaign urging the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of ordering the murder of her husband by her lover and adultery.
In 2013 Remnick ’81 was the guest speaker at Princeton University Class Day.
Remnick provided guest commentary and contributed to NBC coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia including the opening ceremony and commentary for NBC News.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
November 30, 2017
3.5 Stars - Good book
As you might expect with a short-story collection, some are winners and some are losers. The winners were fantastic, and the losers... well, they're they made the reading experience less enjoyable. The rating is an average of the ratings of every individual story and then divided by the number of stories in the book - 44 to be exact.
My favorite story in the collection is one quite early-on and one of the shorter one's in the book - Sailor off the Bremen by Irwin Shaw. The story was originally published in The New Yorker on February 25, 1939. This one tells the story of Ernest, who received a brutal beating from a pro-Nazi aboard the Bremen after a Communist demonstration. Ernest's brother and sister-in-law take revenge into their own hands after hearing his story. This one is my favorite because it is beautifully and simply written. Shaw effectively tells the story that Fascism, Nazism, is disgusting on an individual scale. He also was able to humanize the villain, which not every writer can successfully do. I also appreciate how Shaw didn't portray the Communist's as perfect or the ideal opposition to Fascism. From my understanding, Shaw was left-leaning but I thought this particular story was more centrist - perhaps slightly left leaning.
My least favorite story is The Whore of Mensa by Woody Allen. I mean, he's despicable. Do I need to say more?
My runner-up for favorite is A Sentimental Journey by Peter Taylor.
Do I recommend this? Probably yeah. I'd advise to at least skim through it to see if any stories or authors peak your interest.
As you might expect with a short-story collection, some are winners and some are losers. The winners were fantastic, and the losers... well, they're they made the reading experience less enjoyable. The rating is an average of the ratings of every individual story and then divided by the number of stories in the book - 44 to be exact.
My favorite story in the collection is one quite early-on and one of the shorter one's in the book - Sailor off the Bremen by Irwin Shaw. The story was originally published in The New Yorker on February 25, 1939. This one tells the story of Ernest, who received a brutal beating from a pro-Nazi aboard the Bremen after a Communist demonstration. Ernest's brother and sister-in-law take revenge into their own hands after hearing his story. This one is my favorite because it is beautifully and simply written. Shaw effectively tells the story that Fascism, Nazism, is disgusting on an individual scale. He also was able to humanize the villain, which not every writer can successfully do. I also appreciate how Shaw didn't portray the Communist's as perfect or the ideal opposition to Fascism. From my understanding, Shaw was left-leaning but I thought this particular story was more centrist - perhaps slightly left leaning.
My least favorite story is The Whore of Mensa by Woody Allen. I mean, he's despicable. Do I need to say more?
My runner-up for favorite is A Sentimental Journey by Peter Taylor.
Do I recommend this? Probably yeah. I'd advise to at least skim through it to see if any stories or authors peak your interest.
May 12, 2016
Maybe the New Yorker fiction section is not for me. Too many of the stories were of the John Cheever Saul Bellow Philip Roth John Updike kind, in which a middle aged man puts on his raincoat and leaves his office and gets on the train to Scarsdale and reminisces about an affair he had, and then gets off the train. Maybe its good that I don't get these stories, because maybe that means I don't share their life of middle aged desperation. Maybe.
On the other hand, there's the always funny Sj Perelman.
On the other hand, there's the always funny Sj Perelman.
June 8, 2015
Stories including:
The Five-Forty-Eight by John Cheever
Distant Music by Ann Beattie
Sailor off the Bremen by Irwin Shaw
Physics by Tama Janowitz
The Whore of Mensa by Woody Allen
What It Was Like, Seeing Chris by Deborah Eisenberg
Drawing Room B by John O'Hara
A Sentimental Journey by Peter Taylor
The Balloon by Donald Berthelme
Smart Money by Philip Roth
Another Marvellous Thing by Laurie Colwin
The Failure by Jonathan Franzen
Apartment Hotel by Sally Benson
Midair by Frank Conroy
The Catbird Seat by James Thurber
Snowing in Greenwhich Village by John Updike
I See You, Bianca by Maeve Brennan
You're Ugly, Too by Lorriw Moore
Symbols and Signs by Vladimir Nabokov
Poor Visitor by Jamaica Kincaid
In Greenwich, There Are Many Gravelled Walks by Hortense Calisher
Some Nights When Nothing Happens Are the Best Nights in This Place by John McNulty
Slight Rebellion off Madison by J.D.Salinger
Brownstone by Renata Adler
The Cafeteria by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Partners by Veronica Geng
The Evolution of Knowledge by Niccolo Tucci
The Way We Live Now by Susan Sontag
Do the Windows Open? by Julie Hecht
The Mentocrats by Edward Newhouse
The Treatment by Daniel Menaker
Arrangement in Black and White by Dorothy Parker
Carlyle Tries Polygamy by William Melvin Kelley
Children Are Bored on Sunday by Jean Stafford
Notes from a Bottle by James Stevenson
Man in the Middle of the Ocean by Daniel Fuchs
Mespoulets of the Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans
Over by the River by William Maxwell
Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Second Tree from the Corner by E.B.White
Rembrandt's Hat by Bernard Malamud
Shot: A New York Story by Elizabeth Hardwick
A Father-To-Be by Saul Bellow
Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer by S.J.Perelman
Funny story on this book.
I signed it out from the library because I wanted to read the J.D.Salinger story and when I got it home I was leafing through it and found that someone had cut it out! Of the 44 short stories in the book, the one I was most interested in was cut out. I had to order another copy on an interlibrary loan because the Winnipeg Library only had this one copy.
There are 3 main discussions around this when I tell people:
1. Why would someone do that?
2. Wow. There are some really crazy J.D.Salinger fans.
3. The lesser discussed topic around 'hermit' fans who perhaps cut it out not to keep it for themselves, but to destroy it because of J.D.Salinger and his very clear restrictions regarding the printing of his material.
Anyway...
There are some really great short stories in here. I find an interesting trend that there is a lot of mention of therapists and mental health. I feel like everyone in New York has a therapist. The Thurber story is classic Thurber and it made me laugh. The Salinger story is also classic Salinger and left me wondering if I actually fully get everything he was going for or if I missed something. It's amazing how often he makes me feel that way. :)
The Five-Forty-Eight by John Cheever
Distant Music by Ann Beattie
Sailor off the Bremen by Irwin Shaw
Physics by Tama Janowitz
The Whore of Mensa by Woody Allen
What It Was Like, Seeing Chris by Deborah Eisenberg
Drawing Room B by John O'Hara
A Sentimental Journey by Peter Taylor
The Balloon by Donald Berthelme
Smart Money by Philip Roth
Another Marvellous Thing by Laurie Colwin
The Failure by Jonathan Franzen
Apartment Hotel by Sally Benson
Midair by Frank Conroy
The Catbird Seat by James Thurber
Snowing in Greenwhich Village by John Updike
I See You, Bianca by Maeve Brennan
You're Ugly, Too by Lorriw Moore
Symbols and Signs by Vladimir Nabokov
Poor Visitor by Jamaica Kincaid
In Greenwich, There Are Many Gravelled Walks by Hortense Calisher
Some Nights When Nothing Happens Are the Best Nights in This Place by John McNulty
Slight Rebellion off Madison by J.D.Salinger
Brownstone by Renata Adler
The Cafeteria by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Partners by Veronica Geng
The Evolution of Knowledge by Niccolo Tucci
The Way We Live Now by Susan Sontag
Do the Windows Open? by Julie Hecht
The Mentocrats by Edward Newhouse
The Treatment by Daniel Menaker
Arrangement in Black and White by Dorothy Parker
Carlyle Tries Polygamy by William Melvin Kelley
Children Are Bored on Sunday by Jean Stafford
Notes from a Bottle by James Stevenson
Man in the Middle of the Ocean by Daniel Fuchs
Mespoulets of the Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans
Over by the River by William Maxwell
Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Second Tree from the Corner by E.B.White
Rembrandt's Hat by Bernard Malamud
Shot: A New York Story by Elizabeth Hardwick
A Father-To-Be by Saul Bellow
Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer by S.J.Perelman
Funny story on this book.
I signed it out from the library because I wanted to read the J.D.Salinger story and when I got it home I was leafing through it and found that someone had cut it out! Of the 44 short stories in the book, the one I was most interested in was cut out. I had to order another copy on an interlibrary loan because the Winnipeg Library only had this one copy.
There are 3 main discussions around this when I tell people:
1. Why would someone do that?
2. Wow. There are some really crazy J.D.Salinger fans.
3. The lesser discussed topic around 'hermit' fans who perhaps cut it out not to keep it for themselves, but to destroy it because of J.D.Salinger and his very clear restrictions regarding the printing of his material.
Anyway...
There are some really great short stories in here. I find an interesting trend that there is a lot of mention of therapists and mental health. I feel like everyone in New York has a therapist. The Thurber story is classic Thurber and it made me laugh. The Salinger story is also classic Salinger and left me wondering if I actually fully get everything he was going for or if I missed something. It's amazing how often he makes me feel that way. :)
April 9, 2025
A collection like this will always have a mix of stories that resonated with you and those that did not. Happily, most of these were enjoyable and a few were very much so. There were a few clunkers, but when you've got a five hundred plus pages it's to be expected.
I will say that the premise of this collection was to highlight New York, but some of these stories really could have been set in any city.
The biggest irritation frankly is the artwork they chose for the cover. It started to bother me every time I looked at it. Not a compliment to what is within.
I will say that the premise of this collection was to highlight New York, but some of these stories really could have been set in any city.
The biggest irritation frankly is the artwork they chose for the cover. It started to bother me every time I looked at it. Not a compliment to what is within.
July 20, 2023
Fascinating collection of very different stories united by one city. I would recommend.
October 24, 2019
The New Yorker will probably always be the top contributor to Best American Short Stories. Of course it only makes sense b/c they likely get the most submissions—but even so, they've always had these crazy talented editors... Loved most of the stories chosen here, some not so much.
January 23, 2012
I was surprised how well I liked this collection. I'd bought it not actually realizing it was going to be short fiction -- I thought it would be a compendium of some of the New Yorker's endless stream of profiles and "aww gee, only in New York!" 'Talk of the Town' pieces. But in actuality, it's short fiction first published in the New Yorker which is set in New York.
Given my aversion to my former home -- I've had a rough go of it lately, and as a friend reminded me recently, "Remember that no matter how bad it gets, at least you don't live in New York" -- it's not a bad collection at all. Why? Well, I mean think about it -- the New Yorker publishes quite a bit of very good short fiction (bad stuff too, but we'll get to that in the minute).
The introduction of course is all "you'll argue about what's in this collection, 'cause we all know New Yorkers love to argue!" (yuk yuk), but my only real arguments here were with the pieces that were excerpts from Catcher in the Rye and The Corrections. Sorry no, but that's not short fiction. That's a book excerpt. And in the case of the Franzen, a clumsy one that served mainly to remind me of how much I hated The Corrections (that used copy of Freedom I bought will no doubt be gathering dust for some time yet). There are some pieces as well that are, dare I say, over-anthologized -- "The Way We Live Now" and "You're Ugly, Too," timeless though they are, I practically have memorized.
In all though, I found more to like than to dislike (though my other dislikes were "A Sentimental Journey" and authors I'm just never as into -- Bellow, Malamud, Singer). "Baster" (Eugenides) was strong, though I worry it gave rise to the mediocre Jennifer Aniston/Jason Bateman sperm switch movie. I loved "Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer" (S.J. Perelman) -- seriously laughed out loud. "The Smoker" (David Schickler) I had read in an amazing class in college and forgotten about, but was thrilled to rediscover. My absolute favorite, which I'd never encountered before, was "Another Marvellous Thing" by an author I'd never heard before, Laurie Colwin. I can't say why I liked it, because that would give it away, but if you read any of my other reviews of literary fiction you can probably guess.
Given my aversion to my former home -- I've had a rough go of it lately, and as a friend reminded me recently, "Remember that no matter how bad it gets, at least you don't live in New York" -- it's not a bad collection at all. Why? Well, I mean think about it -- the New Yorker publishes quite a bit of very good short fiction (bad stuff too, but we'll get to that in the minute).
The introduction of course is all "you'll argue about what's in this collection, 'cause we all know New Yorkers love to argue!" (yuk yuk), but my only real arguments here were with the pieces that were excerpts from Catcher in the Rye and The Corrections. Sorry no, but that's not short fiction. That's a book excerpt. And in the case of the Franzen, a clumsy one that served mainly to remind me of how much I hated The Corrections (that used copy of Freedom I bought will no doubt be gathering dust for some time yet). There are some pieces as well that are, dare I say, over-anthologized -- "The Way We Live Now" and "You're Ugly, Too," timeless though they are, I practically have memorized.
In all though, I found more to like than to dislike (though my other dislikes were "A Sentimental Journey" and authors I'm just never as into -- Bellow, Malamud, Singer). "Baster" (Eugenides) was strong, though I worry it gave rise to the mediocre Jennifer Aniston/Jason Bateman sperm switch movie. I loved "Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer" (S.J. Perelman) -- seriously laughed out loud. "The Smoker" (David Schickler) I had read in an amazing class in college and forgotten about, but was thrilled to rediscover. My absolute favorite, which I'd never encountered before, was "Another Marvellous Thing" by an author I'd never heard before, Laurie Colwin. I can't say why I liked it, because that would give it away, but if you read any of my other reviews of literary fiction you can probably guess.
January 25, 2008
this is a wonderful book for anyone who enjoys short stories. the pieces date back to the beginning of the new yorker and capture the essence of manhattan in a somewhat anecdotal fashion. of course, this isn't your sappy chicken soup for the whomever's soul. the stories are literary and classic. it's...wonderful.
March 25, 2010
Fun short stories from many well-known writers, all set in New York. From "The Whore of Mensa"(Woody Allen) to "The CatBird Seat" (James Thurber), apocalyptic, humorous, and everything in between. These stories were fun to read and evening more entertaining to listen to. Now if I could just find something similar about LA....
April 18, 2013
I found this for just $2.00 and am glad i don't pay more for it. Its interesting but the theme of New York becomes a bit repetitious and frankly in most cases it could be any city as a backdrop. I love The New Yorker for its variety and would have preferred if this collection had taken that approach with a broader scope.
March 11, 2014
Lots of different kinds of stories about New Yorkers. It was ok. Not great.
August 19, 2024
New Yorker fiction (short stories) from the 20th century. The focus of the collection was stories that the editor thought communicated the essence of NYC. I liked a few of them a lot: “Midair” by Frank Conroy depicted a son’s fraught relationship with his mostly absentee father and how that affects his own parenting; “Poor Visitor” by Jamaica Kincaid showed the first impressions of an immigrant from the Caribbean; “In Greenwich, There are Many Gravelled Walks” by Hortense Calisher was about a young man who takes responsibility for his alcoholic mother but also wants to make a life for himself; “Some Nights When Nothing Happens Are the Best Nights in this Place” by John McNulty has—in addition to a catchy title— a fabulous opening paragraph and is so well crafted I didn’t want it to end.
As in almost all short story collections, there were a lot that I did not especially enjoy, but only a few that I downright disliked.
As in almost all short story collections, there were a lot that I did not especially enjoy, but only a few that I downright disliked.
October 31, 2017
A good number of short stories, some only a few pages long, the longest is about 30 pages long.
On average, it felt that the stories developed slowly and ended abruptly. Often, too much was left to imagination; others might like it but I didn't. I like the story told until the end. This might be a thing with all short stories, or it might be a thing with me.
When I got used to the style I enjoyed most of the stories, and some of them were downright brilliant (for example: "The smoker", "Midair", "Notes from a bottle", "Baster"). Overall, what made the book very pleasant to read was that the stories take place in New York, which I've always found one of the most interesting, powerful and magical places in the world.
On average, it felt that the stories developed slowly and ended abruptly. Often, too much was left to imagination; others might like it but I didn't. I like the story told until the end. This might be a thing with all short stories, or it might be a thing with me.
When I got used to the style I enjoyed most of the stories, and some of them were downright brilliant (for example: "The smoker", "Midair", "Notes from a bottle", "Baster"). Overall, what made the book very pleasant to read was that the stories take place in New York, which I've always found one of the most interesting, powerful and magical places in the world.
August 12, 2024
Collection of 40ish New Yorker short stories set in New York City. 3 stars as an average, some stories great some nothing. Read quickly because the book lives in my Brooklyn rental. Compiled in 2000 which I think contributed to things feeling dated and one-note at times; I feel like a lot of the New Yorker stories being published right now are more diverse and experimental and interesting to me even as it’s still a marker of literary tradition and only publishes a certain range of things.
Some stories I particularly liked:
The Five-Forty-Eight by John Cheever
What It Was Like, Seeing Chris by Deborah Eisenberg
Smart Money by Phillip Roth
The Failure by Jonathan Franzen (which became the first chapter of The Corrections)
Brownstone by Renata Adler
A Father-to-Be by Saul Bellow
Some stories I particularly liked:
The Five-Forty-Eight by John Cheever
What It Was Like, Seeing Chris by Deborah Eisenberg
Smart Money by Phillip Roth
The Failure by Jonathan Franzen (which became the first chapter of The Corrections)
Brownstone by Renata Adler
A Father-to-Be by Saul Bellow
October 24, 2022
Over the last several months, I have been listening to the New Yorker's fiction podcasts. Seeking more, I found this cheap on Thrift Books and snatched it up. I love the collection as a whole. My five favorites were Over By the River by William Maxwell; The Cafeteria by Isaac Bashevis Singer; The Smoke by David Schickler; You're Ugly, Too; and Do The Windows Open? by Julie Hecht. Those are by five as I write this review tonight. A month from now, if I look a the table f contents again, I might have a different list.
This collection has caused me to order more collections of some of these writers. Thrift Books has a new steady customer.
This collection has caused me to order more collections of some of these writers. Thrift Books has a new steady customer.
August 18, 2021
Some wonderful stories set in New York from many years of The New Yorker. The last one by Susan Sontag was a little disappointing but I can see why they included it. Sontag was a very famous New Yorker and her piece encapsulates a lot of the emotion around HIV/AIDS without ever using those terms. I didn't realise until I read this (and googled her) that she had died.
July 4, 2022
I've been working on this anthology for several years but I've finally finished it. Some of my favorites are:
Distant Music by Ann Beattie
The Balloon by Donald Barthelm
Snowing in Greenwich Village by John Updike
The Cafeteria by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Rembrandt's Hat by Bernard Malamud
and I have to include Woody Allen's The Whore of Mensa.
Distant Music by Ann Beattie
The Balloon by Donald Barthelm
Snowing in Greenwich Village by John Updike
The Cafeteria by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Rembrandt's Hat by Bernard Malamud
and I have to include Woody Allen's The Whore of Mensa.
April 16, 2025
It took me ages to read this book because I left it on my nightstand and forgot about it, but some stories were really good! My favourites were: The Five-Forty-Eight, A Sentimental Journey, The Cafeteria, The Evolution of Knowledge, The Way We Live Now, Do the Windows Open? (this one is for the transit lovers), Water Child, and Poor Visitor.
April 8, 2018
What part of a collection of short stories from The New Yorker requires explanation or justification for reading it? The reputation for consistency in publishing some the best writing in the English language continues.
December 3, 2020
When a story is great it's great. When it isn't, it isn't. So this is a mixed batch. I CONFESS. I didn't read everyone. Partly because of the uncomfortability of being returned to past decades when I first started reading T.N.Y. The Salinger story isn't very good. Lorie Moore - holds up.
February 8, 2023
Enjoyable little collection that captured some of the subtleties of the city, from birth to death. Some good lines here, but the stories themselves were often unmemorable - ultimately an odd selection, but redeemed through humour.
December 23, 2023
This is a great collection of stories connected by their setting, New York City. All of these stories have previously appeared in The New Yorker over the years. I enjoyed most of the stories in this collection.
May 23, 2020
So many eccentric stories with clearly very different styles — amazing collection to read, especially now.
December 7, 2020
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
August 12, 2021
Eclectic collection of short stories by some of our greatest writers. Most were enjoyable - some did not grab me as much.
February 27, 2023
Some really excellent bits and some really boring ones but that’s to be expected from a short story collection I think. You literally could not pay me to live in New York City though
October 27, 2025
From Woody Allen to Saul Bellow, separating the art from the artist one story about New York at a time
Want to read
November 2, 2025New York Public Library
February 3, 2011
I got this at an estate sale, and as you can tell, I've been reading this tome for a year and a quarter. This is one of those books that I use to "clear my palate" between longer works (OK, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, S-F, Patricia Cornwell, Lee Child, fun stuff). This is a tour de force of excellent short stories from about 1927 to about 1999. This is a thoroughly enjoyable compendium of stories about New York, and represents a literary Who's Who, from Woody Allen (His "The Whore of Mensa" gives an entirely new meaning to "Talk Dirty to me") to John Cheever to Saul Bellow to E.B. White, John Updike, Irwin Shaw, Vladimir Nabokov, and a host of others whose names I had hitherto not known (Thank You, Wikipedia!). I HIGHLY recommend this collection, although the pages are crammed with words and it'll take you awhile. Witnessing the turning of a phrase on every page is a very salubrious intellectual experience. Read it!
And -- Happy Groundhog Day! Seems somehow apropos...
And -- Happy Groundhog Day! Seems somehow apropos...
May 13, 2015
I am so behind on my book-keeping (ha ha). But I did finish this book -- the second volume of short stories I've read this year, a genre I am not generally drawn to. But this one was stories about New York City from the New Yorker magazine over the years. A lot of authors you'd expect -- Updike, Salinger, Cheever, Thurber, Janowitz -- and a few I wasn't familiar with. Some were better than others, to me. Some seemed quite dated. Whatever the story was about, New York City was really the main character. This is a very thick book, maybe over-rich. My general impression at the end, though, was, whew! Glad that's over...
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