Now a major motion picture starring Ian Holm, Hope Davis, and Stanley Tucci, who also directs.
Joseph Mitchell was a legendary New Yorke<... read full description
Joseph Mitchell was a legendary New Yorke<... read full description
reviews
Nov 09, 2011
Nick
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Joe Gould was certainly beat, though, like Jack Kerouac, proudly not beatnik, one of those mercurial American eccentrics, messianic when it suited him, pathetic when it didn’t, diplomatic or direct when he needed to be. When New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell first encountered him in the late 1950s, Gould was living semi-rough in New York, though he was a Harvard graduate and had been a professional ethnographer and a journalist. He was known as Professor Seagull, and frequented poetry readings,
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Jul 02, 2011
Owen
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I achingly realized Joe Gould's 'secret' about halfway through the book, and was thereafter in a constant state of pity for him, for Joseph Mitchell, and for many of the various characters swept up in the Oral History. I think he was an interesting and respectable guy, but it made me sad to realize that if he were still around today, he would be brushed off as a destitute panhandler so much more easily now than in the Bohemian scene of the 1940's. It was also fun to read about New York at that t
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Oct 29, 2011
Josh
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Just about every eccentric I’ve ever know has been a mix of infinitely interesting and terribly tiresome. Joe Gould, as I now have known him through Mitchell’s biographical pieces for The New Yorker, isn’t any different. Well, except for the epic literary and historical ambitions of his Oral History project, which amounts to something like Joyce or Proust writing something for Zinn’s “A People’s History” series. Whether tangible or delusory (you’ll have to read the book to find out), Joe Gould’s
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Jan 26, 2012
Ariadna73
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Joe Gould's Secret tells the real story of a homeless man that lived off of a dream: he dreamed that he was a gifted writer, and he sold that dream to a number of people that fed him and eventually provided him with shelter and money for drinks. He was no writer at all, but he was very entertaining, and nobody knew that he wasn't really writing anything. This book is very successful showing his wonderful personality and the different tricks he applied to get some cash out of the people around hi
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May 13, 2011
Erin
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Half profile and half expose, the book is a tender look at a local hero who is crazy but loved for it. Joe Gould says he was a mucus-y and ambisinistrous child. He beat Howard Zinn by a few decades with his "Oral History," which purported to tell the real history of the nation -- the history of the people living their day-to-day lives. It was supposed to have weighed in at 9 million words, nearly 13 times the length of the Bible! He was writing down the "Oral History," someti
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Nov 20, 2008
My buddy Sasha Waters sent me this book a week ago. She knows my keen interest in reportage and it does not get much better than Mitchell. Mitchell wrote longish essays for The New Yorker, and Joe Gould's Secret is a hard-to-stop reading account of an eccentric character who wandered the streets of Greenwich Village, befriending everyone from Mitchell to ee cummings to barmen around the neighborhood. His secret? Well, start reading...you will not be disappointed...
Mar 04, 2011
Gobnait
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Jun 26, 2009
Marcus
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Joseph Mitchell virou referência pela qualidade de seu texto e por dar vida aos anônimos de Nova York nos longos perfis que escrevia. São essas as duas observações que mais se repetem sobre o autor, mas “O segredo de Joe Gould” também põe abaixo dois dogmas do jornalismo: o “compromisso com a verdade” e as fórmulas ortodoxas sobre como escrever uma reportagem. Isso, mais de 40 anos atrás. Fascinante.
Nov 09, 2009
Doug
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The first legitimately great book that I've read in some time, and all the more so for being so compact and circumspect. In some ways deeply distressing, full of real pain and disillusionment, and hope, too. A great True New York story that rises far above the genre. Run, do not walk, to your nearest library or bookstore and get a copy.
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Jun 08, 2010
Greta
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An interesting commentary on an eccentric's life in bohemian New York City. Two stories about the same man written twenty-two years apart which provide an entertaining look at a real character. An easy and intriguing read.
Dec 11, 2010
okyrhoe
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If you are intrigued by the myth and mystique of New York City and the infinite possibilities of life in the megalopolis, this is a must-read.
Joseph Mitchell's book is about the legendary 'bohemian' Joe Gould, a character who frequented the cheap cafes and ratty bars of the down-and-out neighborhoods of NYC, long before these same locations became trendy destinations. All the energy and paranoia of a life lived the street permeates the portrait of this rather extraordinary person, w More...
Joseph Mitchell's book is about the legendary 'bohemian' Joe Gould, a character who frequented the cheap cafes and ratty bars of the down-and-out neighborhoods of NYC, long before these same locations became trendy destinations. All the energy and paranoia of a life lived the street permeates the portrait of this rather extraordinary person, w More...
Feb 17, 2009
Carl
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I love this book. 3rd time read. One of my favorite works of nonfiction, up there with In Cold Blood and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I've liked all of Mitchell's books--reports from New York at its cultural peak--but Gould goes to the next level, a unique peek into how people love an outsider artist, and the realities of his actual life. Seagulls everywhere would be proud.
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Jan 24, 2010
I'm reading Mitchell's book, Up In The Old Hotel, and came across the Professor Seagull piece in McSorley's Wonderful Saloon. This caused me to dig deeper into the story of Joe Gould.
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Jan 02, 2012
Ben
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Really interesting book, particularly evoking Greenwich Village in the 1940s and the types of characters who lived there. I admit it took the Wikipedia article to remind me of the similarities, but The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks talks about the same place/time as well - these are two great books to read in tandem about NYC in ages past.
Oct 01, 2011
Jigar
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A haunting, almost poignant account of a man who tried to lift himself with his own shoelace.
Oct 10, 2007
Leith
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Joseph Mitchell, criminally ignored writer, "the American master of the declarative sentence". Whenever I get bored late at night I pop in a DVD-rom disc from The Complete New Yorker and read old Joseph Mitchell Profiles pieces from the 40s. Captures all the downtown/midtown Moondogesque characters in all their oddball glory.
Jun 15, 2008
Heather
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This was a fun little read, and another of those that I picked up at the school bookstore. How come I never take classes that get the fun assigned reading? I should probably stop buying the books for other classes, but it's a habit I started as an undergrad.
Jul 27, 2008
Myrna
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I first read this book at 24 when I still lived on Irving Place and 20th. I'll never forget Mitchell's imperative-- to not just look around, but to "look up and wonder." Which is particularly fun to do in Manhattan.
Feb 02, 2008
Adam
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I don't remember ever hearing about this book before or after I read it. I hope it actually exists, because I remember it being fantastic.
Dec 16, 2009
Zedder
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When I mentioned that I liked A.J. Liebling, Stan-the-Man said I should read this. He was right.
Feb 11, 2012
Feb 07, 2012
Jan 27, 2012
