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Interviews | June 19, 2009

Dave: IMG Jim Lynch Makes Landscape Art... Out of Text



jimlynchIf Carl Hiaasen set one of his novels on a residential stretch of boundary line between British Columbia and Washington, or if Richard Russo's characters had relatives in the Pacific Northwest, the result might be something like Jim Lynch's Border Songs. Continue »
  1. $18.16 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Border Songs

    Jim Lynch

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The New Yorkers

The New Yorkers Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

An enchanting comedy of manners (with dogs!) from one of our most treasured writers Cathleen Schine’s brilliantly funny new novel revolves around one city block in Manhattan, a quiet little block near Central Park kept humble by rent control. Living on a street like this in New York with a dog is like living in a tiny village, one that has a rhythm all its own. Dogs bring people together unexpectedly, people who would otherwise never meet. And the dogs act as cupids for the quiet, struggling, sometimes lonely, eccentric people, the old and the young, male and female; the people who live on the block, who are, in their ways, romantics, as all New Yorkers secretly tend to be. Walking her dog, Beatrice, Jody falls under the spell of Everett’s bewitching smile. Everett begins to appreciate his postdivorce life only when he falls in love with Howdy, Polly’s puppy. Polly lives with her brother, George, and wants him to fall in love. George isn’t so much looking for a love life as for life direction, and Howdy leads him right to it. Doris hates the trash on her block, she hates the pee on her SUV’s large tires, and, above all, she hates dogs. That is, until she gets one of her own. In The New Yorkers, as in life, canine companions compel their masters to go outside of themselves, to take part in the community they live in, to make friends, and, sometimes, to fall in love. And Schine returns to what she does best: crafting a compulsively readable, elegantly written novel that seduces in the way we were once seduced by The Love Letter, Schine’s beloved classic.

Review:

"Schine dispatches a love letter to New Yorkers and the dogs who own them in her seventh novel (after She Is Me), an ensemble novel centered on an Upper West Side street. Jody, a lonely 39-year-old musician/music teacher who's lived in the same rent-controlled studio since college, rescues a pit bull mix named Beatrice from the ASPCA. After eight months of blissful pet ownership, Jody bumps into divorced 50-year-old Everett while walking Beatrice and falls in love with the stranger after he shoots her a smile. George, a 28-year-old waiter, moves into the neighborhood when his younger sister, Polly, rents an apartment in Everett's building and acquires the puppy left behind by the last tenant. (He hanged himself; she names the pup Howdy.) Down the street live Simon, a reclusive social worker whose only joy in life is foxhunting, and Doris, an embittered, prep-school guidance counselor with no love lost for pooches. Orbits slowly begin to overlap as winter gives way to spring and then the summer of the 2003 blackout — an event that sends a few characters in unexpected directions. It may not play as well west of the Hudson, but the hometown dog-run crowd will find this heartfelt tribute curiously endearing." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

Schine's brilliantly funny new novel revolves around one city block in Manhattan. In her book, as in life, canine companions compel their masters to go outside of themselves, to take part in the community they live in, to make friends, and, sometimes, to fall in love.

About the Author

Cathleen Schine is the author of The Love Letter and Rameau’s Niece, among other novels. She has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Times Book Review.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Mary Moore, July 6, 2007 (view all comments by Mary Moore)
What wonderful surprise this book was. I had never read anything by Schine before. The cover picture got me to pick the book up and her writing convinced me to buy it. Funny, charming, and warm; the author does a wonderful job of sketching all the characters. And an amazing job of showing what a dog can add to a person's life with making the dog a person in a fur suit. Highly recommended for everyone; but especially for anyone with a special dog in their life.
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(6 of 13 readers found this comment helpful)
netgrrl, May 24, 2007 (view all comments by netgrrl)
I love books about communities and neighborhoods. Ones with dog stories woven in are even better.

I can't speak for how well it portrays New Yorkers, but I think people are people everywhere. The relationships between people and the dogs was dead on.
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(3 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780374221836
Subtitle:
A Novel
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Illustrator:
Shapton, Leanne
Author:
Schine, Cathleen
Subject:
Humorous
Subject:
Manhattan (new york, n.y.)
Subject:
Romance - Contemporary
Subject:
Dog walking
Publication Date:
20070501
Binding:
HC
Language:
English
Illustrations:
, Y
Pages:
304
Dimensions:
8.25x6.09x1.11 in. 1.07 lbs.

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