Up in the Old Hotel
by Joseph Mitchell
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 359)
recommends it for:
Everyone who loves New York, Everyone who loves the New Yorker
I re-read this book every couple of years. It's both a way to time travel to the New York of the earlier twentieth city and an immersion in that compelling yet somehow effortless prose that drives me to pick up the New Yorker every time I see it. I want to visit the New York Mitchell describes, and I feel deeply cheated that it's gone.
This isn't just New York, the center of the civilized world, it's New York as a place that grew up out of a Dutch settlement surrounded by long grass at the con...more
This isn't just New York, the center of the civilized world, it's New York as a place that grew up out of a Dutch settlement surrounded by long grass at the con...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Nick by:
Aimee Hess
I have not quite finished this book but I took a break, came back, and now have read enough of it to feel I can write a review (it's four books in one, it's a collection of profiles, I'm allowed).
This book is a brilliant collection of investigations into the lives of fascinating, and oftentimes eccentric, New Yorkers, mainly from the first part of the 20th century. Gypsies, bohemians, deaf people, Native Americans, turtle famers.
There are also short stories that Mitchell actually wrote b...more
This book is a brilliant collection of investigations into the lives of fascinating, and oftentimes eccentric, New Yorkers, mainly from the first part of the 20th century. Gypsies, bohemians, deaf people, Native Americans, turtle famers.
There are also short stories that Mitchell actually wrote b...more
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Read in July, 1999
I remember where I heard of this book; it was in an issue of the New Yorker with an article remembering Joseph Mitchell's mysterious drop-off in production at the magazine. Apparently, after twenty or thirty years of excellent work, he simply stopped writing. He came to work at the magazine every day and appeared to be working in his office for the next ten or fifteen years, but he never produced anything...at least, nothing that was published in any form. This was an excellent collection. I...more
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Read in October, 2007
Somewhat uneven, as any collection of pieces that span decades is bound to be. Roughly the first half (the stuff from the McSorley's book) is mostly profiles of Bowery/lowlife/eccentric characters in Depression and War-era New York. Some of the stuff in The Bottom of the Harbor section gets a little repetitive---Mitchell is obsessed with fishing (and clamming and oystering), fish (and clams and oysters), fisherman, and fishing communities, and so on---but it's still an absolutely fascinating loo...more
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Quite simply, brilliant genius required reading. I knew of Mitchell as the most notorious case of writer's block, possibly ever. After publishing his masterwork, "Joe Gould's Secret", he turned up at his office at the New Yorker every day for something like thirty years; but never published another word.
This collection makes clear what a tragedy that was. Mitchell was a natural historian, and an anthropologist, whose subject was the old codgers down by the docks, and the Fulton fi...more
This collection makes clear what a tragedy that was. Mitchell was a natural historian, and an anthropologist, whose subject was the old codgers down by the docks, and the Fulton fi...more
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Read in January, 1995
recommends it for:
everyone
Joseph Mitchell's articles from the New Yorker illuminate life in the city during the early part of the twentieth century: Long Island oyster fields, Gypsies, grimy-ass Bowery flophouses, and the recently closed Fulton Fish Market. These long essays basically defined the form of the New Yorker profile. Start with "Mohawks in High Steel" and then the lead story "McSorley's Wonderful Saloon." My personal favorite is the essay of "beefsteaks", which is mouthwatering ju...more
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recommends it for:
nyc lovers, character studies
The end-all and be-all of character profiles weird and wonderful. Joseph Mitchell used to write for the New Yorker in the 30s-50s, and did wonderful, wonderful pieces on the various folks he'd encounter, and the food they'd eat together (the man really like his seafood). It's one of those books you wish you could live out, frequenting the dives that Mitchell did and talking with the Native American steel workers and drunken intellectuals along the way. Just a fantastic book.
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Admittedly, I have a soft spot for this book since my grandfather sent me a copy when I spent a year in a one-book desert town. There isn't much journalism—or writing in general—like this anymore: Pure, impeccable storytelling for its own sake. Mitchell was a precursor to the New Journalists, bringing a novelistic eye to everyday life, soaking up details, becoming the "fly on the wall" (and probably making up a fair amount of dialog along the way).
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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This is a wonderful collection of essays by Joseph Mitchell, who wrote about people and places in New York City that were a bit odd or hidden or otherwise out of the mainstream. His description of McSorley's saloon will make you want to go to New York City immediately to find it (fortunately, it is still there, unlike many of his other subjects.) Highly recommended!
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recommends it for:
everyone
An excellent document of unsung New York characters of the 1930's-1970's as seen by journalist Joseph Mitchell. Mitchell has a true gift of capturing these remarkable people's voices, from the seafoodetarian to the super eccentric junk shop owner and Bowery street preacher. Parts of this book are so funny you'll want to reread over and over again!
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written by a southerner who became a writer for the new yorker. there are portraits of "old" new york. you can read this book for a while, take a break, then easily pick it up again. the characters are great, and damn if this book doesn't re-remind you how unique people are-everywhere all around you! the little people of the world rule!
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One of the pinnacles of the idea of laughter through tears. Crazy hobos who talk to seagulls, sad lonely old men, restaurant owners and fishing boat operators speak through Joseph Mitchell. This is both intensely specific New Yorkishness, and as universal as talking to some crazy on the bus.
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Read in January, 2008
This book is awesome - it's a collection of essays written by a 'street journalist' for the New Yorker between about 1930 and 1950. It details the weirdigans that lived in different parts of New York, from gypsies to a bearded woman, to bar owners. The oddest thing is that it's true.
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Skillful hand. Patient, descriptive, masterful non fiction. I want to hit him for being so impossibly good. stories are surely interesting enough, but although he slides himself right out of the narritive his writing is the certain star amongst a host of memorable characters.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Sasha by:
Aimee Hess and Lindsay Campbellrecommends it for: all New Yorkers
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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I've been meaning to buy and read this. (So many books...) In a somewhat similar vein, I've been reading, slowly, Jane Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities. I don't know that I agree with some of her hypotheses, but then, I'm a card-carrying country mouse.
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Crusty essays about gritty ole New York City. If you read this collection outside of New York it will make you long to return; if you read it while residing there, it will make you want to take a long walk around town and appreciate where today's New York came from.
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Its rather amusing to read this book through a 21st century POV. The entries in the book, originally published from the 1930's to the 1950's, reminisce about a bygone New York.
Mitchell's writing is very effective in inducing the reader to get lost in the stories.
Mitchell's writing is very effective in inducing the reader to get lost in the stories.
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Oh, Joseph Mitchell is so wonderful. I love these short stories about places and people in old New York. His writing is so gorgeous and simple; he lays it out for you to discover. LOVE this. I go back to it every few years.
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