Particularize Books Toward Up in the Old Hotel
| Original Title: | Up in the Old Hotel |
| ISBN: | 0679746315 (ISBN13: 9780679746317) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | The Bowery, New York City, New York(United States) Manhattan, New York City, New York(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | Ambassador Book Award for American Arts & Letters (1993) |
Joseph Mitchell
Paperback | Pages: 716 pages Rating: 4.33 | 3403 Users | 320 Reviews
Interpretation In Favor Of Books Up in the Old Hotel
Saloon-keepers and street preachers, gypsies and steel-walking Mohawks, a bearded lady and a 93-year-old “seafoodetarian” who believes his specialized diet will keep him alive for another two decades. These are among the people that Joseph Mitchell immortalized in his reportage for The New Yorker and in four books—McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould's Secret—that are still renowned for their precise, respectful observation, their graveyard humor, and their offhand perfection of style.These masterpieces (along with several previously uncollected stories) are available in one volume, which presents an indelible collective portrait of an unsuspected New York and its odder citizens—as depicted by one of the great writers of this or any other time.
Itemize Appertaining To Books Up in the Old Hotel
| Title | : | Up in the Old Hotel |
| Author | : | Joseph Mitchell |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 716 pages |
| Published | : | June 1st 1993 by Vintage (first published 1992) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Writing. Essays. Short Stories. New York. History |
Rating Appertaining To Books Up in the Old Hotel
Ratings: 4.33 From 3403 Users | 320 ReviewsJudgment Appertaining To Books Up in the Old Hotel
True New York stories circa 1930 to 1950 or thereabouts. Truly amazing writing that brings the nooks and crannies of the city to life. The author tends to leave himself almost entirely out of these essays and lets the characters (and these are some SERIOUSLY INTERESTING characters) speak and act for themselves. Drunks. Geniuses. Bartenders. Fishermen. Religous zealots. Gypsies. Best of all, these essays are excellent sources of history, as they capture a time and place that is gone forever. EachCollected works of arguably the greatest nonfiction writer ever. You will find out more about NYC history here than in any other book on the subject.
In this collection of pieces that he wrote for the New Yorker, mostly in the 1940s and 50s, Mitchell takes us to an older and stranger New York. This journalist had an affinity for the oddballs, the eccentrics, the solitary men who despite their flaws had important things to share with the rest of us. It is primarily a collection of profiles of such individuals: the head of a small anti-profanity organization, a crusty fishing captain and Sunday painter, a retired fish market worker, a
Introduction, by William FiennesAuthor's Note McSorley's Wonderful Saloon I--The Old House at Home--Mazie--Hit on the Head with a Cow--Professor Sea Gull--A Spism and a Spasm--Lady Olga--Evening with a Gifted Child--A Sporting Man--The Cave Dwellers--King of the Gypsies--The Gypsy Women--The Deaf-Mutes Club--Santa Claus Smith--The Don't-Swear Man--Obituary of a Gin Mill--Houdini's Picnic--The Mohawks in High Steel--All You Can Hold for Five Bucks--A Mess of Clams--The Same as Monkey GlandsII
I have no real context with the city or the milieu, and yet the pieces worked for me. Like old wine, Mitchell's work keeps growing on me. And I see a close cousin of him back home in R K Narayan, who must have walked among the city folks with open eyes and ears, to draw inspiration for his many characters who populate Malgudi. How far, I wonder, is Narayan's Selvi from Mitchell's Mazie (one fictional and other non-fictional); and though separated by a vast geographical gap, I see that their (and
These stories are much better presented one at a time as intended since they aren't actually stories, rather a series of descriptions. Although these descriptions are written so masterfully they are a pleasure to read, it's hard to wade through 700+ pages of descriptions and characters without plot.
It's hard to tell whether New York was once a bigger, more interesting, more varied place - neighborhoods of gypsies and Mohawks and rich bankers and Irish mobsters and black oystermen and Italian fishmongers and down-and-out bohemians and Bowery flophouse bums and writers and scoundrels and drunks and saints and preachers, the fabulously wealthy next to the well to do next to the rising, working poor next to the indigents and luckless, all within a couple stone throws away from each other in a
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