Remarkable, Unspeakable New York

by Shaun O'Connell

From Old New York to the Harlem Renaissance, the Algonquin Round Table to the New York Intellectuals, the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth, Remarkable, Unspeakable New York offers a sweeping new view of New York's place in the American literary imagination. James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, E. L. Doctorow, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Oscar Hijuelos, Langston Hughes, Washington Irving, Henry James, Toni Morrison, Dorothy Parker, Edith Wharton, Walt Whitman, and Tom Wolfe are among the many writers whose literary legacies are brought to life.

Genres: History

400 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

Reviews

[Elizabeth]

O'Connell has written a history of New York through literature. This was great fun for me being a NY history fan and a literature reader. From Washington Irving and Walt Whitman to Norman Mailer and Truman Capote, he covers a wide gamut of writers. A whole chapter is devoted to the Harlem Renaissance and the writers who came out of that movement. The single theme (give or take) seems to be the heartbreak of living in New York--it is a tough city. For those of us who live in New York, it is simply home...we go through out daily lives not needing to be Masters of the Universe (Tom Wolfe) and for us, it is where we live. It is true that many people come to NY to master it, and it's a big city!

You will be inspired to read books you haven't and re-read those you've read years ago.

[Darla Ebert]

I liked parts of this book. It was well-researched but my brain got muddied by the wordiness. I could and did very much respect the author's intellect in tackling the subject(s) at hand.

[Maya]

Excellent literary history of New York. Very well written and gave me a lot suggestions for future self-education reading. The decision to confine almost all of the black authors to the Harlem Renaissance chapter was something I did not appreciate, but the chapter itself was excellent. Also not appreciated: the author's dismissal of Dorothy Parker as a wannabe Edna St. Vincent Millay, and of Edna St. Vincent Millay as an adorable sprite who wrote very nice poetry and, more importantly, inspired men to write vital and pressing things. But overall, the book was a thought-provoking and in-depth analysis of the magnetic pull New York City exerts on authors.

[Carl]

As I read everything New York, this is yet another damn good book that shows how the literature evolved in pace with the city. It continually amazes me how fast the city changes along with the people who write about it. It seems no matter what book I read, things get a little choppy after 1960 for the literati. And really...how often do you get to use the word "literati."