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Nowojorczycy. Miasto i ludzie
Nowojorczycy. Miasto i ludzie
464 pages, Hardcover
First published March 23, 2021
344 people are currently reading
5650 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews
November 25, 2020
As dizzying a spectacle as the city itself, Craig Taylor’s NEW YORKERS is a fixed record of the fleeting present, a curated selection of those numberless “stories in the Big City”. If you’ve scrolled through Humans of New York, you’ll relish the chance to get beyond the photos. Some stories stand me in awe of the city, and some of them make me very glad I don't live there. People make their living getting nits and lice out of people's hair because the pests have evolved to resist remedies that work elsewhere—no thank you! But maintaining a midcentury World’s Fair scale model of the entire city in a Queens museum? That sounds like a fascinating job.
You’ll meet homeless New Yorkers, and you’ll meet an elevator repairman who has seen how many empty spaces the city holds, enough to house everyone in the city, except the landlords are trying to keep up their reputation by keeping the rents too high to fill the building.
You’ll meet, one after the other, a “cop” who prides himself on not being a “police officer” (his badly-motivated co-workers), and then a trans Latina who sees the whole NYPD as a lethal danger to her and a lot of other people, unaccountable to any real justice—and then a far-right militia member who makes excuses for old racists and says “a black” shot his friend.
You’ll meet a personal injury lawyer who waxes rhapsodic about arranging for the author to accidentally trip and fall over an officially documented crack in the sidewalk, and how eloquently he would describe the author’s face as maimed, tragically disfigured!, you know, hypothetically. You’ll meet the mother of a man who’s incarcerated at Rikers Island, and an ex-con who did time there, and a car thief who’s still on the outside.
NEW YORKERS is only a tiny sample of the fascinating lives in New York City, of course. But that’s all the more reason to savor every story. I did. And I can tell you, if I ever get up to New York City again, I’m gonna savor every slice on a Scott’s Pizza Tour (Chapter 8, “Life is a Parade”). That’s a thing that exists in New York. Because of course it does. It’s New York.
I am grateful to NetGalley for a free advance copy.
You’ll meet homeless New Yorkers, and you’ll meet an elevator repairman who has seen how many empty spaces the city holds, enough to house everyone in the city, except the landlords are trying to keep up their reputation by keeping the rents too high to fill the building.
You’ll meet, one after the other, a “cop” who prides himself on not being a “police officer” (his badly-motivated co-workers), and then a trans Latina who sees the whole NYPD as a lethal danger to her and a lot of other people, unaccountable to any real justice—and then a far-right militia member who makes excuses for old racists and says “a black” shot his friend.
You’ll meet a personal injury lawyer who waxes rhapsodic about arranging for the author to accidentally trip and fall over an officially documented crack in the sidewalk, and how eloquently he would describe the author’s face as maimed, tragically disfigured!, you know, hypothetically. You’ll meet the mother of a man who’s incarcerated at Rikers Island, and an ex-con who did time there, and a car thief who’s still on the outside.
NEW YORKERS is only a tiny sample of the fascinating lives in New York City, of course. But that’s all the more reason to savor every story. I did. And I can tell you, if I ever get up to New York City again, I’m gonna savor every slice on a Scott’s Pizza Tour (Chapter 8, “Life is a Parade”). That’s a thing that exists in New York. Because of course it does. It’s New York.
I am grateful to NetGalley for a free advance copy.
March 12, 2021
This was the absolute perfect book to read before my trip to New York next week. It will also go down as one of my favorite books of the year, and I'm calling it even though it's only March.
I listened on libro.fm, and the cast was brilliant and felt authentic and genuine. I really suggest listening to this on audio.
I listened on libro.fm, and the cast was brilliant and felt authentic and genuine. I really suggest listening to this on audio.
May 28, 2024
Nie ma skali, by opisać jej doskonałość.
March 30, 2021
4.5
I just honestly enjoyed reading every page of this book.
I just honestly enjoyed reading every page of this book.
July 16, 2021
I have lived in New York for about 2.5 years now. I feel like I know a bit of the city and some of its people, but what I call my community is a very specific circle, with shared experiences, interests and outlook on the world, and it’s sometimes easy to forget that the world is so much wider than you perceive it to be in day to day life.
This book helps remind you of that. It includes a lot of interviews, life stories and perspectives from a very diverse set of people – New Yorkers – from different experiences, socioeconomic backgrounds, walks of life and ways of seeing the world. Some of them are very caring, some ambitious, some are focused on their family and some are focused on their definition of success. All of them reveal a lot of their humanity, of their emotions, dreams and fears, and as a reader it’s not too hard to find relatable points with each of these characters.
It’s a very impressive body of work; the set of people and life stories represented is wide – much wider than a common person would find in their own life, I risk saying – and there is a degree of involvement, as if the author developed true connections to these people. The conversations feel less like interviews a journalist would write and more like chats between friends. Open, honest chats.
Sometimes I found pieces of the stories trite, almost boring, but this feeling didn’t last for long. These lives are normal, like yours and mine, and therefore full of mundane details, but very often a story is told which stirs a lot of emotion. A couple that really made a mark on me were the story of a mother whose son is imprisoned and that of a police officer who went through 9/11. Both of them experienced deep pain, loss and suffering, but they remain somehow peaceful, empathetic and hopeful.
I would highly recommend this book, not only to people interested in New York but to people interested in hearing about other life stories. In this book they happen to be somehow related to this remarkable city, but in the end they are fundamentally human and therefore universal.
This book helps remind you of that. It includes a lot of interviews, life stories and perspectives from a very diverse set of people – New Yorkers – from different experiences, socioeconomic backgrounds, walks of life and ways of seeing the world. Some of them are very caring, some ambitious, some are focused on their family and some are focused on their definition of success. All of them reveal a lot of their humanity, of their emotions, dreams and fears, and as a reader it’s not too hard to find relatable points with each of these characters.
It’s a very impressive body of work; the set of people and life stories represented is wide – much wider than a common person would find in their own life, I risk saying – and there is a degree of involvement, as if the author developed true connections to these people. The conversations feel less like interviews a journalist would write and more like chats between friends. Open, honest chats.
Sometimes I found pieces of the stories trite, almost boring, but this feeling didn’t last for long. These lives are normal, like yours and mine, and therefore full of mundane details, but very often a story is told which stirs a lot of emotion. A couple that really made a mark on me were the story of a mother whose son is imprisoned and that of a police officer who went through 9/11. Both of them experienced deep pain, loss and suffering, but they remain somehow peaceful, empathetic and hopeful.
I would highly recommend this book, not only to people interested in New York but to people interested in hearing about other life stories. In this book they happen to be somehow related to this remarkable city, but in the end they are fundamentally human and therefore universal.
June 18, 2024
Such a wonderful book to read right before moving to the city. Really powerful and funny and also some disturbing stories. This was a great read and I loooooved it.
GET ME TO BROOKLYN!
GET ME TO BROOKLYN!
April 13, 2021
What is it about New York City?
I’ve only been once, yet during that brief trip in 2008, each landmark, each district was already so deeply embedded in my visual memory from films, tv and photos of the city that I had this dizzy sense of deja vu everywhere I looked.
You might ask whether a city that has been recreated so often in so many mediums needs yet another book. I thought the same too. What I didn’t count on was a pandemic keeping me at home for 12 months, how much I miss travelling and also meeting other people. Craig Taylor’s New Yorkers has helped to fill that gap.
As in his previous book Londoners, Taylor has spent years walking the streets of NYC interviewing people across its 5 Boroughs. There is breadth and depth here: from subway conductors to electricians scaling the radio mast on the Empire State Building; the ultra-rich and the homeless, they’re all here. The life of and in the city feels fully represented, with the effects of 9/11, Hurricane Sandy and the current Covid-19 pandemic rippling through the books’ stories which are loosely grouped together thematically. Several interviewees re-appear and sometimes stories overlap with others, giving a sense of how, in a city often characterised as a relentless, brutal hustle, there are still human connections to be made.
I loved this. With many thanks to John Murray for the ARC.
I’ve only been once, yet during that brief trip in 2008, each landmark, each district was already so deeply embedded in my visual memory from films, tv and photos of the city that I had this dizzy sense of deja vu everywhere I looked.
You might ask whether a city that has been recreated so often in so many mediums needs yet another book. I thought the same too. What I didn’t count on was a pandemic keeping me at home for 12 months, how much I miss travelling and also meeting other people. Craig Taylor’s New Yorkers has helped to fill that gap.
As in his previous book Londoners, Taylor has spent years walking the streets of NYC interviewing people across its 5 Boroughs. There is breadth and depth here: from subway conductors to electricians scaling the radio mast on the Empire State Building; the ultra-rich and the homeless, they’re all here. The life of and in the city feels fully represented, with the effects of 9/11, Hurricane Sandy and the current Covid-19 pandemic rippling through the books’ stories which are loosely grouped together thematically. Several interviewees re-appear and sometimes stories overlap with others, giving a sense of how, in a city often characterised as a relentless, brutal hustle, there are still human connections to be made.
I loved this. With many thanks to John Murray for the ARC.
June 4, 2021
I didn't love this as much as 'Londoners' - maybe because I don't know New York nearly as well, maybe because midway through the book, one or two of Craig Taylor's garrulous interviewees seem to corner him and make him write down their every thought. However, I particularly loved the stories from people who worked on the buildings and the transport systems (the recording studio owner, the elevator repairman, the window cleaner, the subway conductor), and Craig Taylor's own story of his awkward friendship with a homeless man. My abiding memory of my last visit to New York is crossing the road with a man who took umbrage at the pedestrian crossing sound and shouted "Shut the fuck up with your beep!"; this book is full of him.
December 13, 2022
Bardzo dobra książka. Głownie za sprawą formy. Autor oddał głos mieszkańcom Nowego Jorku. A ci opowiadali o swoim życiu w Nowym Jorku lub z Nowym Jorkiem. Żadnego ubarwiania i koloryzowania. Ostatecznie dowiedziałem się tylko tego co już wiedziałem: że życie tam jest ciężkie, chyba że jesteś bogaty. Nic nowego. Ale też nie ma w tym nudy, czy banału właśnie dlatego, że mówią o tym zwyczajni ludzie i przez pryzmat własnych trosk i problemów. Czysta egzemplifikacja. I bardzo ciekawa.
July 30, 2021
This took me ages to read as I found it quite tedious and it felt never ending.
While I can appreciate the hours of work the author did interviewing all of the people involved I just didn’t find it easy to read.
There were some really fascinating stories that I would have loved to continue reading about, but there were others that were just so boring I only skim read them.
Reading the other reviews I am clearly in the minority with my feelings about this book.
While I can appreciate the hours of work the author did interviewing all of the people involved I just didn’t find it easy to read.
There were some really fascinating stories that I would have loved to continue reading about, but there were others that were just so boring I only skim read them.
Reading the other reviews I am clearly in the minority with my feelings about this book.
Read
August 29, 2022Legit loved every page of this book. Whether you like people or not, this is definitely a must-read.
January 12, 2023
An excellent social history of New York written over a period of two decades. The ‘contributors’ range from all estates of life and really drives home the diversity and sheer scale of this city. Some of the accounts from those interviewed are particularly touching and even harrowing, with a chapter dedicated to the Covid-19 pandemic which hit the city particularly hard.
A really easy read (I read it in two big blocks as life had gotten in the way of me picking this up again) and the fact that it’s lots of short accounts it’s a great book to pick up if you have 10-15 minutes spare.
Would highly recommend for those interested in social / contemporary history, or for readers who want to learn more about the people who make up one of the world’s most iconic cities. Will definitely now also get Craig Taylor’s other work on Londoners!
A really easy read (I read it in two big blocks as life had gotten in the way of me picking this up again) and the fact that it’s lots of short accounts it’s a great book to pick up if you have 10-15 minutes spare.
Would highly recommend for those interested in social / contemporary history, or for readers who want to learn more about the people who make up one of the world’s most iconic cities. Will definitely now also get Craig Taylor’s other work on Londoners!
July 22, 2024
Gosh, I loved this so so so much. I stumbled across it after Pilates one day and fell open to a section of investment bankers that clearly wouldn't be able to relate to lots of new yorkers, but i was struck by them just describing their version of the city. I thought it was a lovely glimpse of people making it work in a city people dream of moving to. He talked to a wide range of people and there are some lines from people I'll hold on to forever. Highly recommend, even moreso if you've lived there.
October 1, 2024
I love New York City. As much as someone can love a city, but not particularly want to live or visit there. I love reading about NYC history. I am interested in learning about the city’s varied cultures and neighborhoods. Everyday people’s stories fascinate me the most, so this book seemed to be right up my alley.
Overall, this book met my expectations of what I thought it would be. I was hoping for stories of how New York used to be in the “old days”/how things have changed over the years, stories about why New York is so special to people, and stories of normal people just living in the city and trying to make a life for themselves. This book brought all of those things in spades.
Each chapter had a theme that the stories in that chapter would be about. Within each chapter there would be about four or five stories told by NY residents that go with the theme. The stories were transcribed from recorded voice, so it seemed like the person was talking directly to the reader. There were three different interludes throughout the book where the author tells his story of meeting and befriending Joe, an individual experiencing homelessnes, throughout his time living in the city. Some standout chapters were Pandemic City, Non-stop Hustle, and Building Stories.
Pandemic City was the most affecting section, to me. It tells the story of Dan Bauso, a personal injury lawyer from Queens, and his experience testing positive for COVID and then being hospitalized for almost a week in Long Island Jewish Hospital (LIJH). It also included interviews with a LIJH nurse who took care of Bauso and other COVID patients. His hospitalization happened right at the beginning of quarantine and already the hospital ICU was full and it was all hands on deck. I liked the insight to what the nurses were experiencing (emotionally and physically) when treating COVID patients and insight into what it felt like to be a COVID patient in New York City. Also, Dan Bauso (who is in other chapters as well) is delightful and I would pay to have him take me on a tour of NYC like he did with the author.
The author interviews a very diverse cross section of people for this book. Their perspectives and circumstances are from every end of the spectrum. There were some stories that I skipped over because they weren’t as interesting to me, but it was only a few. This book is a quick read. Most of the stories aren’t overly long or rambling, but the ones that are add to the interviewee’s character. This book is good for anyone wanting to get a taste of what everyday NYC residents are like in real life. I would recommend anyone with an interest in NYC culture and/or history told from an insider’s perspective pick up this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Overall, this book met my expectations of what I thought it would be. I was hoping for stories of how New York used to be in the “old days”/how things have changed over the years, stories about why New York is so special to people, and stories of normal people just living in the city and trying to make a life for themselves. This book brought all of those things in spades.
Each chapter had a theme that the stories in that chapter would be about. Within each chapter there would be about four or five stories told by NY residents that go with the theme. The stories were transcribed from recorded voice, so it seemed like the person was talking directly to the reader. There were three different interludes throughout the book where the author tells his story of meeting and befriending Joe, an individual experiencing homelessnes, throughout his time living in the city. Some standout chapters were Pandemic City, Non-stop Hustle, and Building Stories.
Pandemic City was the most affecting section, to me. It tells the story of Dan Bauso, a personal injury lawyer from Queens, and his experience testing positive for COVID and then being hospitalized for almost a week in Long Island Jewish Hospital (LIJH). It also included interviews with a LIJH nurse who took care of Bauso and other COVID patients. His hospitalization happened right at the beginning of quarantine and already the hospital ICU was full and it was all hands on deck. I liked the insight to what the nurses were experiencing (emotionally and physically) when treating COVID patients and insight into what it felt like to be a COVID patient in New York City. Also, Dan Bauso (who is in other chapters as well) is delightful and I would pay to have him take me on a tour of NYC like he did with the author.
The author interviews a very diverse cross section of people for this book. Their perspectives and circumstances are from every end of the spectrum. There were some stories that I skipped over because they weren’t as interesting to me, but it was only a few. This book is a quick read. Most of the stories aren’t overly long or rambling, but the ones that are add to the interviewee’s character. This book is good for anyone wanting to get a taste of what everyday NYC residents are like in real life. I would recommend anyone with an interest in NYC culture and/or history told from an insider’s perspective pick up this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 16, 2021
I'm an Anglophile with a distaste for NYC in general and I still think this is not only 5*, but better than "Londoners."
December 19, 2025
DNF.
Picked up on my first trip to the cardiff library. Mostly because they said there was an issue with my account and we needed to check out a book to troubleshoot it.
The individual stories are interesting enough, but feel like fragments of something larger that it doesn’t really amount to in any meaningful way. I’ve never been to New York, have no affinity for the city, and almost all of my understanding of the city comes from pop culture.
Eh!
Picked up on my first trip to the cardiff library. Mostly because they said there was an issue with my account and we needed to check out a book to troubleshoot it.
The individual stories are interesting enough, but feel like fragments of something larger that it doesn’t really amount to in any meaningful way. I’ve never been to New York, have no affinity for the city, and almost all of my understanding of the city comes from pop culture.
Eh!
March 3, 2023
I really loved reading this!!! So interesting stories told by most various people. I’m still shocked how exceptional and personal things author learned by talking to random people on the street.
July 27, 2023
such a treat to experience and understand the city through its diverse people and their stories
December 1, 2024
read this when i first moved to nyc and it has heavily influenced my experience of the city (i also met the author and a few of the mentioned characters 😭❤️)
October 9, 2021
You could be forgiven for thinking that New York is not a city in any great need of further mythologisation or aggrandisement. Surely there is no part of NYC that remains unexamined or unexcavated? Well, in “New Yorkers” the Canadian journalist Craig Taylor succeeds in uncovering new stories and relating new experiences from the city ... all through the simple act of talking to people who dwell in it.
This is a tougher task than it sounds. In a mammoth undertaking, Craig Taylor spoke to over 180 New Yorkers - from all walks of NYC life - over the course of 6 years. Taylor employs an oral historian interview-style quite similar to that of the legendary Studs Terkel, in that he just sits his interviewees in front of a recorder and lets them talk. Like Terkel, Taylor is fascinated with the intricacies of how people make a living.
“New Yorkers” provides a terrific insight into people’s relation to their employment. Taylor gives particular focus to workers whose jobs one might not have previously given much thought to; such as, in one memorable chapter, the guy whose daily duty it is to fix the antennae on the top of the Empire State Building. Throughout “New Yorkers” we hear from practically every strata of NYC society; from the hustlers and scam artists, to the cooks and dentists, the relationship counsellors and professional dog walkers, from cops to protesters, lift operators, joggers, and sex workers.
Through his interviewees, Craig Taylor really gets at the seamy underbelly of the city. Former inmates of Rikers Island tell us how they navigated the notoriously brutal New York prison system. Homeless pandhandlers advise us on what it takes to survive on the streets of an often unforgiving city.
In order to give a true panoramic overview of the metropolis, Taylor - to his credit - ventures far off Broadway and beyond the glass and metal canyons of Manhattan, and through his interviewees he explores outer areas of the boroughs like Staten Island, the South Bronx, and The Rockaways. By weaving together interviewees from across NYC’s patchwork of communities and neighbourhoods, Taylor highlights the migrant experience of New York and it means he is able to address the often fraught race relations of the city. And the chapter on a hospital in Queens - where Taylor hears the often harrowing stories of nurses, paramedics and patients during the absolute depths of the pandemic - is one of the best pieces of writing on the Covid crisis that I’ve yet to encounter.
Perhaps the one segment of NYC society that Craig Taylor doesn’t reach directly (other than through their hired help) is New York’s super-rich elite. This is ironic given how the notion that New York has become “a playground for the rich” is such a recurring theme amongst interviewees throughout the book. It is this elite group - memorably described here as “the violently rich” - who are an unseen spectre throughout “New Yorkers”, responsible for gentrification, the homogenisation of Manhattan, and the hollowing out of NYC’s cultural landscape. This seemingly unstoppable tide is illustrated by one of the most compelling interviewees here: Steve Rosenthal. He is the former owner of the Soho recording studio where David Bowie made his final albums, but who now finds himself priced out of Manhattan, with Rosenthal now asserting that property speculators are devouring what is left of the city’s artistic heritage.
While not every single one of the eighty plus interviews compiled here is a complete barnburner (New Yorkers, no more than anybody else, aren’t afraid of the sound of their own voices), Taylor is brilliant at reproducing the kinetic rhythms and frenetic patterns of ordinary New Yorkers. In this way, “New Yorkers” perfectly captures the dynamism and movement of a city that is in a constant state of reinvention. By swerving the grand narrative overview, Craig Taylor has managed to piece together a true people’s history of New York City.
This is a tougher task than it sounds. In a mammoth undertaking, Craig Taylor spoke to over 180 New Yorkers - from all walks of NYC life - over the course of 6 years. Taylor employs an oral historian interview-style quite similar to that of the legendary Studs Terkel, in that he just sits his interviewees in front of a recorder and lets them talk. Like Terkel, Taylor is fascinated with the intricacies of how people make a living.
“New Yorkers” provides a terrific insight into people’s relation to their employment. Taylor gives particular focus to workers whose jobs one might not have previously given much thought to; such as, in one memorable chapter, the guy whose daily duty it is to fix the antennae on the top of the Empire State Building. Throughout “New Yorkers” we hear from practically every strata of NYC society; from the hustlers and scam artists, to the cooks and dentists, the relationship counsellors and professional dog walkers, from cops to protesters, lift operators, joggers, and sex workers.
Through his interviewees, Craig Taylor really gets at the seamy underbelly of the city. Former inmates of Rikers Island tell us how they navigated the notoriously brutal New York prison system. Homeless pandhandlers advise us on what it takes to survive on the streets of an often unforgiving city.
In order to give a true panoramic overview of the metropolis, Taylor - to his credit - ventures far off Broadway and beyond the glass and metal canyons of Manhattan, and through his interviewees he explores outer areas of the boroughs like Staten Island, the South Bronx, and The Rockaways. By weaving together interviewees from across NYC’s patchwork of communities and neighbourhoods, Taylor highlights the migrant experience of New York and it means he is able to address the often fraught race relations of the city. And the chapter on a hospital in Queens - where Taylor hears the often harrowing stories of nurses, paramedics and patients during the absolute depths of the pandemic - is one of the best pieces of writing on the Covid crisis that I’ve yet to encounter.
Perhaps the one segment of NYC society that Craig Taylor doesn’t reach directly (other than through their hired help) is New York’s super-rich elite. This is ironic given how the notion that New York has become “a playground for the rich” is such a recurring theme amongst interviewees throughout the book. It is this elite group - memorably described here as “the violently rich” - who are an unseen spectre throughout “New Yorkers”, responsible for gentrification, the homogenisation of Manhattan, and the hollowing out of NYC’s cultural landscape. This seemingly unstoppable tide is illustrated by one of the most compelling interviewees here: Steve Rosenthal. He is the former owner of the Soho recording studio where David Bowie made his final albums, but who now finds himself priced out of Manhattan, with Rosenthal now asserting that property speculators are devouring what is left of the city’s artistic heritage.
While not every single one of the eighty plus interviews compiled here is a complete barnburner (New Yorkers, no more than anybody else, aren’t afraid of the sound of their own voices), Taylor is brilliant at reproducing the kinetic rhythms and frenetic patterns of ordinary New Yorkers. In this way, “New Yorkers” perfectly captures the dynamism and movement of a city that is in a constant state of reinvention. By swerving the grand narrative overview, Craig Taylor has managed to piece together a true people’s history of New York City.
February 23, 2023
Książka jest zbiorem opowieści nowojorczyków, o ich życiu w Nowym Jorku oraz o samym mieście, które autor zebrał podczas licznych rozmów przeprowadzonych na przestrzeni kilku lat. Wstęp nie precyzuje, jak daleko posunęła się jego praca (uznałam więc, że przytacza tylko treść tych wypowiedzi i zajął się wyłącznie redakcją oraz uporządkowaniem poszczególnych rozmów w rozdziały). Czyli żadnego wkładu własnego - chodzę, rozmawiam z ludźmi, potem przepiszę na kompie co powiedzieli i tyle -mam książkę. Wobec tego moje wrażenie po pierwszych stronach, zwłaszcza po wstępie, nie było najlepsze. Pewnie jeszcze chaos, skoro żadna fabuła nie łączy ani rozmówców między sobą, ani też żadne tematy wypowiedzi nie były przez autora wybrane jako wiodące.
Jednak bardzo pozytywnie się zaskoczyłam. Historie, mimo, że nie są ze sobą bardziej powiązane - wcale nie wydają się chaotyczne, a wręcz wciągają i się dopełniają. Wyłania się z nich prawdziwy vibe miasta, czuć jego chaos i dynamikę - można popatrzeć na NY oczami mieszkańców ale też na tych mieszkańców jak na kolorowe elementy kalejdoskopu charakterów i tornado marzeń.
Jednak bardzo pozytywnie się zaskoczyłam. Historie, mimo, że nie są ze sobą bardziej powiązane - wcale nie wydają się chaotyczne, a wręcz wciągają i się dopełniają. Wyłania się z nich prawdziwy vibe miasta, czuć jego chaos i dynamikę - można popatrzeć na NY oczami mieszkańców ale też na tych mieszkańców jak na kolorowe elementy kalejdoskopu charakterów i tornado marzeń.
June 22, 2025
Trochę nierówne reportaże. Od genialnie napisanych, które czyta się z zapartym tchem, po gnioty z których nie wiadomo o co chodzi. Generalnie polecam, bo bardzo lubię ten gatunek. Ale jak ktoś nie przeczyta, to nie umrze z tego powodu 😄.
August 17, 2021
Interesting insight into New York life but lacks the fizz that its predecessor (Londoners) has.
April 29, 2021
Over a period of six years, the author, Craig Taylor, met with, interviewed and be-friended scores of New York residents from all walks of life - each of them eager to share their slice of New York City with us. The resulting book, “New Yorkers, A City and Its People in our Time”, is a fascinating literary mosaic of dozens of unique and intimate musings collected and distilled for us into one wonderful volume.
Some of the characters we meet include a security guard at the Statue of Liberty, a city roadworks engineer trying to hold back the tide on crumbling streets and Infrastructure, and a COVID patient admitted to a NY hospital in the height of the earliest pandemic days.
We meet some of the homeless, the poverty-stricken, a criminal, a lawyer, the militant, a cop, a 911 dispatcher and several social justice seekers; as well as nannies, tutors, interior designers and others trying to eke out a living at the hands of a city which has evolved into a “playground for the rich”, or as some see it, the “violently or aggressively wealthy”.
Several of the stories involve young people arriving from midwestern or southern states, - artists, actors, journalists, singers - creative hopefuls caught up in the dream, the “generosity of opportunities”, the theatrical loudness and the “great bigness” of everything NY.
Across it all, the voices we hear are alternately strident, empathetic, assertive, intelligent, kind, angry, reflective, uncompromising and many are fiercely proud of their borough and their city - in short, every and all characteristics you would expect to find in the population of any huge metropolitan area. What makes this collection cohesive then, is not what these individuals have in common, so much as what they don’t.
If it wasn’t clear beforehand, its certainly clear after losing yourself to this totally engrossing collection of characters - New York City, as evidenced in this book, pulsates with an inexhaustible, fluid, larger-than-life energy which feeds on diversity - the outcome evident in an ever-widening cacophony of city living, an “assault on the senses”, that, love it or hate it, is impossible to ignore.
A big thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advance review copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts presented are my own.
Some of the characters we meet include a security guard at the Statue of Liberty, a city roadworks engineer trying to hold back the tide on crumbling streets and Infrastructure, and a COVID patient admitted to a NY hospital in the height of the earliest pandemic days.
We meet some of the homeless, the poverty-stricken, a criminal, a lawyer, the militant, a cop, a 911 dispatcher and several social justice seekers; as well as nannies, tutors, interior designers and others trying to eke out a living at the hands of a city which has evolved into a “playground for the rich”, or as some see it, the “violently or aggressively wealthy”.
Several of the stories involve young people arriving from midwestern or southern states, - artists, actors, journalists, singers - creative hopefuls caught up in the dream, the “generosity of opportunities”, the theatrical loudness and the “great bigness” of everything NY.
Across it all, the voices we hear are alternately strident, empathetic, assertive, intelligent, kind, angry, reflective, uncompromising and many are fiercely proud of their borough and their city - in short, every and all characteristics you would expect to find in the population of any huge metropolitan area. What makes this collection cohesive then, is not what these individuals have in common, so much as what they don’t.
If it wasn’t clear beforehand, its certainly clear after losing yourself to this totally engrossing collection of characters - New York City, as evidenced in this book, pulsates with an inexhaustible, fluid, larger-than-life energy which feeds on diversity - the outcome evident in an ever-widening cacophony of city living, an “assault on the senses”, that, love it or hate it, is impossible to ignore.
A big thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advance review copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts presented are my own.
May 30, 2021
New York will always have my heart ❤️
I was #gifted New Yorkers by John Murrays and I’ve been reading it over the last couple of months and I loved it!
New Yorkers is a collection of stories from people living in New York collated over 6 years. This book has everything and everyone you could imagine, there’s such a variety! Some of my personal favourite stories were from a a private cook, a meditation specialist, an elevator repairman, the owner of a recording studio and a lice consultant. And of course Joe ❤️
When I went to New York 6 years ago, I did all the cliche things you want to do in New York. I went to the top of the Empire State Building, I visited the Statue of Liberty, I bought a designer handbag in Macy’s, saw a Knicks game and walked though Central Park (and got engaged there too! ❤️). I did all these cliches because I’d read and seen New York everywhere and these were ‘the things to do’. I absolutely adored my time in NYC and I know I’m going to go back there again one day. Even though I already knew that there was so much more to the city that I hadn’t seen, this book showed me that New York is not just the cliches we see in books and films, it has so much more to offer. So next time I go, I want to find the hidden secrets of New York, to see it through the eyes of New Yorkers themselves.
This book covered everyone and everything New York has been through, and even though I only stayed there for 6 days 6 years ago, it made me miss the city. It was so honest and open, the stories inside it really get to your heart. And you can tell the love that Craig Taylor has for it too. This is one that will stay forever on my shelves and I go back to again in the future. ❤️
I was #gifted New Yorkers by John Murrays and I’ve been reading it over the last couple of months and I loved it!
New Yorkers is a collection of stories from people living in New York collated over 6 years. This book has everything and everyone you could imagine, there’s such a variety! Some of my personal favourite stories were from a a private cook, a meditation specialist, an elevator repairman, the owner of a recording studio and a lice consultant. And of course Joe ❤️
When I went to New York 6 years ago, I did all the cliche things you want to do in New York. I went to the top of the Empire State Building, I visited the Statue of Liberty, I bought a designer handbag in Macy’s, saw a Knicks game and walked though Central Park (and got engaged there too! ❤️). I did all these cliches because I’d read and seen New York everywhere and these were ‘the things to do’. I absolutely adored my time in NYC and I know I’m going to go back there again one day. Even though I already knew that there was so much more to the city that I hadn’t seen, this book showed me that New York is not just the cliches we see in books and films, it has so much more to offer. So next time I go, I want to find the hidden secrets of New York, to see it through the eyes of New Yorkers themselves.
This book covered everyone and everything New York has been through, and even though I only stayed there for 6 days 6 years ago, it made me miss the city. It was so honest and open, the stories inside it really get to your heart. And you can tell the love that Craig Taylor has for it too. This is one that will stay forever on my shelves and I go back to again in the future. ❤️
October 9, 2022
3.5 stars
I've been fighting this rating and review for like a month, and now the book is overdue because it's been sitting on my bedside table and I've forgotten a lot of things I wanted to say.
Perhaps I would've connected to this more if I lived in New York - hell, if I'd ever visited New York City. The furthest I've gotten into the US of A was Buffalo 10ish years ago. I dream of travelling, but I haven't much outside of my home province of Ontario. In any case, when I read a similar book to this format about Toronto, it felt more personal: these are my streets I run on, that's the bus I took last week, that's the statue I walk past, those are the stores I ship at, those are my neighbours etc. I don't have that same connection, but the stories were obviously very personal and in several cases quite intimate. I don't think I was ever bored. I'm a nosy person by nature and a book full of people sharing their life stories really scratches that itch. Some stories were better than others to me, but it was always interesting.
I thought I'd leave this book wanting to finally travel to NYC, and I do still really, really want to see JFK just for the aviation-nerd side of me, but I feel kind of conflicted - though still curious and intruigued to see NYC up close. It sounds like such a harsh, brutal environment in which only your luck and your wallet depend on if you'll have any fun or not. Like any city? Most of the big ones, yeah. Could someone say the same of Toronto? Damn straight. There's a lot of similarities. I think that maybe there were so many stories where I saw suffering or struggling more than genuine joy that it's made me guarded and ripped off any rose coloured glasses I may have possessed. But it does seem like a place that teaches you to fight for yourself, and work hard to get where you want.
One thing that I do love is that so much is always happening, which I be heard said a lot. So much political change, so many celebrities, all the marches/protests, the technologies being studied, the arts. It's a city of strong and varied culture, no one can deny that, and that is appealing. As a massive introvert it also sounds like a horrible place to live 24/7, but an amazing place to dip into when I want to be swept along in a crowd or see something wild and memorable or just feel a part of something bigger than myself.
I haven't found that many individual stories really stuck with me for that long-lasting emotional impact. I vaguely remember the subway operator's story. I remember the window washer, because I love how people if every random occupation were interviewed here, the mediation teacher who wanted a loud apartment so her students could meditate in "real New York" (which I loved), a rich guy who contacted NASA to get a glass countertop because he was just that rich, and that Irish guy who refused to leave during a hurricane. I remember him because it's utterly stupid to not leave when you're under an evacuation order, goddamn. I'm glad the daughter survived and was stronger for it, but. Well. Anyway. I'll get off my soap box.
I will definitely look up the Londoners book the author compiled, because I'm a sucker for this format of book. This was fascinating to learn about our neighbours across the much smaller pond and get a better understanding of the massive range of everyday life and the struggles they face, which unsurprisingly are often very similar to Toronto. One day I'll reach NYC and no doubt it will be very memorable to experience a sliver of that chaos.
I've been fighting this rating and review for like a month, and now the book is overdue because it's been sitting on my bedside table and I've forgotten a lot of things I wanted to say.
Perhaps I would've connected to this more if I lived in New York - hell, if I'd ever visited New York City. The furthest I've gotten into the US of A was Buffalo 10ish years ago. I dream of travelling, but I haven't much outside of my home province of Ontario. In any case, when I read a similar book to this format about Toronto, it felt more personal: these are my streets I run on, that's the bus I took last week, that's the statue I walk past, those are the stores I ship at, those are my neighbours etc. I don't have that same connection, but the stories were obviously very personal and in several cases quite intimate. I don't think I was ever bored. I'm a nosy person by nature and a book full of people sharing their life stories really scratches that itch. Some stories were better than others to me, but it was always interesting.
I thought I'd leave this book wanting to finally travel to NYC, and I do still really, really want to see JFK just for the aviation-nerd side of me, but I feel kind of conflicted - though still curious and intruigued to see NYC up close. It sounds like such a harsh, brutal environment in which only your luck and your wallet depend on if you'll have any fun or not. Like any city? Most of the big ones, yeah. Could someone say the same of Toronto? Damn straight. There's a lot of similarities. I think that maybe there were so many stories where I saw suffering or struggling more than genuine joy that it's made me guarded and ripped off any rose coloured glasses I may have possessed. But it does seem like a place that teaches you to fight for yourself, and work hard to get where you want.
One thing that I do love is that so much is always happening, which I be heard said a lot. So much political change, so many celebrities, all the marches/protests, the technologies being studied, the arts. It's a city of strong and varied culture, no one can deny that, and that is appealing. As a massive introvert it also sounds like a horrible place to live 24/7, but an amazing place to dip into when I want to be swept along in a crowd or see something wild and memorable or just feel a part of something bigger than myself.
I haven't found that many individual stories really stuck with me for that long-lasting emotional impact. I vaguely remember the subway operator's story. I remember the window washer, because I love how people if every random occupation were interviewed here, the mediation teacher who wanted a loud apartment so her students could meditate in "real New York" (which I loved), a rich guy who contacted NASA to get a glass countertop because he was just that rich, and that Irish guy who refused to leave during a hurricane. I remember him because it's utterly stupid to not leave when you're under an evacuation order, goddamn. I'm glad the daughter survived and was stronger for it, but. Well. Anyway. I'll get off my soap box.
I will definitely look up the Londoners book the author compiled, because I'm a sucker for this format of book. This was fascinating to learn about our neighbours across the much smaller pond and get a better understanding of the massive range of everyday life and the struggles they face, which unsurprisingly are often very similar to Toronto. One day I'll reach NYC and no doubt it will be very memorable to experience a sliver of that chaos.
February 19, 2024
I’ve never been to New York, my view of it shaped through 20th and 21st Century media: Elf, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Nu Yorica!, Bonfire of the Vanities and countless music, art, documentaries, all of which barely make a splash in the grand collective ocean of NYC-inspired artworks out there. This book paints a portrait of the place as it is, as it was, all seen through different prisms, and told through interviews with its residents. Some of which are incredibly astute, like Maggie Parker’s, a nanny of the super-rich. Her observation that these new super-rich kids will never have a ‘normal’ upbringing, will never mix with others outside their social circle, never have a pocket money job, instead, will still end up as part of the elite, increasingly in control of global decisions, with zero sense of their impact on billions of people worldwide. It’s not just lacking a moral compass; it’s an absence of any frame of reference and what this means for the rest of us.
Elsewhere and perhaps unsurprisingly, Covid-tales play a part of this book, as does testimony from people impacted by 911 - who couldn’t have been? Stories of homelessness, community, family, making it, scraping it, losing it, dreams and hopes - they all feature and it’s all the richer for it. On the face of it, it’s about New York, but within the pages, it’s all about the people that really brings the place and this book to life. An absorbing read.
Elsewhere and perhaps unsurprisingly, Covid-tales play a part of this book, as does testimony from people impacted by 911 - who couldn’t have been? Stories of homelessness, community, family, making it, scraping it, losing it, dreams and hopes - they all feature and it’s all the richer for it. On the face of it, it’s about New York, but within the pages, it’s all about the people that really brings the place and this book to life. An absorbing read.
May 18, 2021
I was born and bred in the Midwest. The first time I met a New Yorker I was on a roadtrip in Arkansas. My family and I were playing the license plate game and I (being 10 at that time) saw the New York license plate and yelled ‘New York’! The driver retorted ‘yeah what about it!?’
This brief interaction shaped my stereotype of New Yorkers; blunt, mouthy, snappy, and quick to cut through the bullshit. After reading this book I think it has both reinforced and shifted my perception of New Yorkers (NYC). The city is tough and so are its people. But, that’s what makes them great. I loved the diversity of people Taylor spoke to and the interludes with Joe (although wish he would’ve spoke to some informal workers as they make up a big part of the city). Anyway, what a wonderful book. I was sucked in story after story. You walk away from this book hearing for the New York of yore.
As a geography student, we study place. What is placemaking? Who are cities being built for? What are the neoliberal policies driving this change? This book answers them all. I loved (in a horrifying way that makes you hate rich people) the story with the private tutor. I am just reminded that we as a society need our cities to be built FOR the working class. After all it is the working class that built the city. I really loved this book and it makes me want to visit NYC, something I never thought I would say after the license plate incident.
This brief interaction shaped my stereotype of New Yorkers; blunt, mouthy, snappy, and quick to cut through the bullshit. After reading this book I think it has both reinforced and shifted my perception of New Yorkers (NYC). The city is tough and so are its people. But, that’s what makes them great. I loved the diversity of people Taylor spoke to and the interludes with Joe (although wish he would’ve spoke to some informal workers as they make up a big part of the city). Anyway, what a wonderful book. I was sucked in story after story. You walk away from this book hearing for the New York of yore.
As a geography student, we study place. What is placemaking? Who are cities being built for? What are the neoliberal policies driving this change? This book answers them all. I loved (in a horrifying way that makes you hate rich people) the story with the private tutor. I am just reminded that we as a society need our cities to be built FOR the working class. After all it is the working class that built the city. I really loved this book and it makes me want to visit NYC, something I never thought I would say after the license plate incident.
February 25, 2021
This is a collection of snapshots of what it's like to live and work in New York, and in some cases what it means to be a New Yorker. There is one relationship that the author comes back to over and over again, but apart from this, there is a huge variety of voices and experiences here. It reminded me very much of Humans of New York, which is a project I follow through Facebook. It's a real social snapshot, kind of like a longer term, more in depth and interesting census. I found myself wanting to know more about some of the people and the people I didn't warm to were only there for a few pages, so it was perfect. The sections which feature people's experiences of 9/11 were particularly fascinating. This is a book you could read in one go, or like me, dip into and out of as they day progresses. During this last few months of COVID I've found it really difficult to concentrate on reading for long periods of time, and this book has been perfect for me.
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