In the City

by Joan Silber

In 1920's Greenwich Village, Pauline Samuels, a recent high school graduate from Newark with bohemian aspirations and romantic dreams, throws herself into, and out of, two disastrous love affairs, and experiences sexual, political, and psychological awakening

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1987

About the author

Joan Silber is the author of nine books of fiction. Her book Improvement was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and was listed as one of the year's best books by The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, The Seattle Times, and Kirkus Reviews. She lives in New York and teaches in the Warren Wilson MFA Program. Keep up with Joan at joansilber.net.

Reviews

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

c 1987. Silber [born 1945, grew up Jewish in Millburn, New Jersey]

I got some of this author's books because of a laudatory review of her works in the Women's Review of Books. Definitely a good book. Not an escapist book, not a tear jerker, not a book with anything like a romantic happy ending. An unsentimental look at a 19 year old going off by herself to live and work in New York City in 1925. How does the author know how life was in 1925, I wonder! Amazing, but she seems to know in great detail. I couldn't in the least identify with the main character, as her personality is completely different from mine, but that is part of the joy of reading for me, to 'meet' different kinds of people.

Her first novel was Household Words, excellent.

[Mary Lins · Rating 4 out of 5]

“In the City” by Joan Silber (1987) has been on my “To Be Read” stack for quite some time (not since 1987, though!) because it was highly recommended by an author I admire, and because I’ve never read anything by Joan Silber that I didn’t like.

I’m so glad I finally reached for it! This short novel set in the 1920s is about Pauline Samuels from Newark, who upon graduating from high school, moves to New York City to “find her life”.
We follow her as she finds a mundane job, but then also finds friends, lovers, and various places to live. It’s all very bohemian.


For me it was interesting to see how DIFFERENT life was for a young woman in NYC in the “Roaring 20’s” – but also how much is THE SAME!
As I was reading, I couldn’t help thinking about popular shows that have a similar plot line; “Friends” and “Sex and the City” to name two.

[5greenway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this - strong sense of a time; great characters, whether sketched or fleshed out.

[Danilo DiPietro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proxy for ‘Safety’ - New Yorker short story discussed with Ann’s book club. Heartbreaking story of the times we’re living in.

[Jmolentin]

Pretty good follow up read to Dorothy Parker anthology.