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Kissing in Manhattan: Stories
Hilarious, sexy, and deeply tender, Kissing in Manhattan was one of the most celebrated debuts in recent years. Acclaimed author David Schickler’s collection of linked stories follows a troupe of love-hungry urbanites through a charmed metropolis and into the Preemption--a mythic Manhattan apartment building. The Preemption sets the stage for a romantic fantasy as exuberant, dark, and dazzling as the city it occupies. Behind closed doors, the paths of an improbable cast of tenants--a seductive perfume heiress; a crabby, misunderstood actor; a preternaturally sharp-sighted priest--tangle and cross, while a perilous love triangle builds around three characters:
James Branch, a shy young accountant with an unusual love for the Preemption’s antique elevator, and a strange destiny...
Patrick Rigg, a Wall Street lothario who soothes his pain by seducing
beautiful women, carrying a gun, and attending the nightly sermons of a foreboding priest...
Rally McWilliams, a fetching, hopeful young writer who roams the city at night, searching for the soulmate she believes in but can’t find...
Charged with joy and a deadly sense of humor, Kissing in Manhattan is a daring new writer’s vision of a world where men and women, good and evil, love and sex, meet, battle, and embrace on every street corner.
James Branch, a shy young accountant with an unusual love for the Preemption’s antique elevator, and a strange destiny...
Patrick Rigg, a Wall Street lothario who soothes his pain by seducing
beautiful women, carrying a gun, and attending the nightly sermons of a foreboding priest...
Rally McWilliams, a fetching, hopeful young writer who roams the city at night, searching for the soulmate she believes in but can’t find...
Charged with joy and a deadly sense of humor, Kissing in Manhattan is a daring new writer’s vision of a world where men and women, good and evil, love and sex, meet, battle, and embrace on every street corner.
274 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
David Schickler
10 books45 followersDavid Schickler (born July 30, 1969 in Rochester, New York) is an American author and screenwriter. He is the co-creator and an executive producer of the new Cinemax television series Banshee, premiering in 2013.
David Schickler is a graduate of the Columbia M.F.A. program. He lives in New York. His stories have appeared in "The New Yorker," "Tin House" and "Zoetrope." "From the Hardcover edition."
See: Wikipedia
David Schickler is a graduate of the Columbia M.F.A. program. He lives in New York. His stories have appeared in "The New Yorker," "Tin House" and "Zoetrope." "From the Hardcover edition."
See: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 369 reviews
January 9, 2009
While it is obviously unfair to blame a writer for his overzealous marketing team, it’s still worth pointing out that the back cover of this book states: “Kissing In Manhattan is the reason you learned to read.”
Wow.
I thought I learned to read so that I could catch the right bus or take the right motorway turning and not accidentally end up in John O’Groats. I thought I learned to read so that I could decipher the menu in restaurants and not randomly order chopped liver. Even if my mad reading skillz were only devoted to books, I’d name a few hundred authors worthier than Schickler that make reading a transcendent experience.
But anyway.
In this collection of short stories, the characters all exist in approximately the same bubble of experience: they have connections with the same apartment complex, frequent the same restaurant and read the same newspaper columnist. Three characters are given a storyline that spans mutiple stories, which bestows a novel-esque quality on the book. Don't expect the easy narrative of a novel, though. The real lynchpin of the book is Schickler's twisted, fantastical city; the stories merely swirl around it in a non-linear way.
The stories mostly concern heterosexual relationships, but, rather than romance, Schickler seems more interested in domination and submission. One character in particular has a D/s kink, but the theme runs throughout the entire book. In Schickler’s universe, women don’t just want to be dominated – submission is the only thing that can satisfy them.
I’m no great hater of D/s in fiction – in fact, done right, it can be pretty hot – but the way Schickler presents it, I found deeply disquieting. In the explicit D/s, there’s very little given in the form of consent by the women. Maybe it takes away from the fantasy to have the characters plainly discuss what they’re going to do in bed, but my brain just kept screaming, “safewords! safewords!” :/ The non-explicit D/s simply struck me as too close to old-fashioned sexism. Similarly, I found it difficult to enjoy the relationship between the older male teacher and younger female student, because it’s so clearly coded as a relationship where the woman has no power.
(Note to Schickler: most couples roleplay D/s; they don’t take it as a motif for living.)
Schickler has a clipped, precise style that is well-suited to short stories. The characters are well-drawn, the dialogue snappy and the universe neatly-constructed. However, there’s a lack of warmth in these stories. Schickler’s universe is fully-formed, but not especially prone to beauty or affection.
I give this book 3 stars because it’s technically accomplished. However, I put it aside with a slight shudder and hope to banish it from my brain fairly quickly.
Wow.
I thought I learned to read so that I could catch the right bus or take the right motorway turning and not accidentally end up in John O’Groats. I thought I learned to read so that I could decipher the menu in restaurants and not randomly order chopped liver. Even if my mad reading skillz were only devoted to books, I’d name a few hundred authors worthier than Schickler that make reading a transcendent experience.
But anyway.
In this collection of short stories, the characters all exist in approximately the same bubble of experience: they have connections with the same apartment complex, frequent the same restaurant and read the same newspaper columnist. Three characters are given a storyline that spans mutiple stories, which bestows a novel-esque quality on the book. Don't expect the easy narrative of a novel, though. The real lynchpin of the book is Schickler's twisted, fantastical city; the stories merely swirl around it in a non-linear way.
The stories mostly concern heterosexual relationships, but, rather than romance, Schickler seems more interested in domination and submission. One character in particular has a D/s kink, but the theme runs throughout the entire book. In Schickler’s universe, women don’t just want to be dominated – submission is the only thing that can satisfy them.
I’m no great hater of D/s in fiction – in fact, done right, it can be pretty hot – but the way Schickler presents it, I found deeply disquieting. In the explicit D/s, there’s very little given in the form of consent by the women. Maybe it takes away from the fantasy to have the characters plainly discuss what they’re going to do in bed, but my brain just kept screaming, “safewords! safewords!” :/ The non-explicit D/s simply struck me as too close to old-fashioned sexism. Similarly, I found it difficult to enjoy the relationship between the older male teacher and younger female student, because it’s so clearly coded as a relationship where the woman has no power.
(Note to Schickler: most couples roleplay D/s; they don’t take it as a motif for living.)
Schickler has a clipped, precise style that is well-suited to short stories. The characters are well-drawn, the dialogue snappy and the universe neatly-constructed. However, there’s a lack of warmth in these stories. Schickler’s universe is fully-formed, but not especially prone to beauty or affection.
I give this book 3 stars because it’s technically accomplished. However, I put it aside with a slight shudder and hope to banish it from my brain fairly quickly.
May 29, 2009
Totally misogynistic! I can’t even get into how awful the women characters are in this book.
Also, this book felt just slightly off in its grasp of people and emotions – almost like it was written by a very precocious and introspective high schooler who just hasn’t had enough real life experience or something. There was this oddly false sense of isolation around all the characters. It was also full of bad, eye-rollable writing like this: “For James was a lover of simple detail, a fan of wrought-iron fences and haiku.” I mean, come on. In another book perhaps this same sentence *maybe* could have worked well, but here it just felt like stupid and lazy writing. Really? Wrought-iron fences and haiku?!
But! This was a great book to read after W&P. It was sufficiently engaging and short and easy to read so as to make me not want to stop reading it, but bad enough so that I didn’t feel that emotionally invested in it, since I’m still reeling from my all-consuming and blindingly beautiful encounter with W&P (oh, the relationship analogies that can be applied to books – although no relationship I’ve ever had has come anywhere close to W&P, I should say). Also, it had all sorts of references to modern New York, which was nice since I recently started liking New York again!
Also, this book felt just slightly off in its grasp of people and emotions – almost like it was written by a very precocious and introspective high schooler who just hasn’t had enough real life experience or something. There was this oddly false sense of isolation around all the characters. It was also full of bad, eye-rollable writing like this: “For James was a lover of simple detail, a fan of wrought-iron fences and haiku.” I mean, come on. In another book perhaps this same sentence *maybe* could have worked well, but here it just felt like stupid and lazy writing. Really? Wrought-iron fences and haiku?!
But! This was a great book to read after W&P. It was sufficiently engaging and short and easy to read so as to make me not want to stop reading it, but bad enough so that I didn’t feel that emotionally invested in it, since I’m still reeling from my all-consuming and blindingly beautiful encounter with W&P (oh, the relationship analogies that can be applied to books – although no relationship I’ve ever had has come anywhere close to W&P, I should say). Also, it had all sorts of references to modern New York, which was nice since I recently started liking New York again!
August 8, 2010
I've used this book for monologues for class, have transformed one of the stories into a reader's theatre piece and saw it performed, have cried, laughed out loud, read it out loud in the bath to my love, read it in a hammock to myself, re-read and re-read this and filled it with notes and dog ears and it is still new every time. The characters are reflections, magnified to become borderline supernatural of everyone we see and love and walk by and ignore and argue with and are afraid of everyday in our lives in every city. But there's love, there's love in it's many beautiful forms and David Schickler's stories are united by that dangerous, intoxicating thread. It's difficult for me to summarize a collection of fiction that I have carried with me like a friend for years but to read about magic in such a cynical world and the dirty complicated fairy dust that can be sprinkled over us whether we notice it or not...just read. And do not expect realism or even gloss but read and see the people, feel and remember the exhilaration and terror of love in all of it's forms. This book comes alive.
July 20, 2007
I was tempted to give this book one star, but that just felt mean. The characters felt mainly one-dimensional, with a forced quirkiness that felt born of the sort of exercise you’d be assigned in a beginning creative writing class (Patrick drinking only Old Fashioneds, etc.) These characters’ eccentricities induced a lot of eye-rolling, particularly given that there wasn’t much to them beyond their tics. The story arc was pure Hollywood, riddled with saccharin New York clichés about love and longing, and the ending was downright maudlin. I gave it two stars for its “fun” factor—-it’s a good beach read in that it doesn’t require a lot of you. But if you want to read a NYC story that actually has depth and heart and transcendence and all the things Schickler strove for but didn’t quite reach, read Rick Moody’s novella, “The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven” instead.
September 22, 2014
I cannot for the life of me wrap my head around why this book is so highly rated. The old-world misogyny starts right off the bat, with a woman being told that "[she] belongs to a man". I let that slide in hopes that it was maybe just her, but pretty much every female in this book exists to submit to a man. What tries to be exciting and edgy winds up leaving me with those uncomfortable "rapey" vibes that leave me eager to leave the world of the book behind. And also, as a native New Yorker, I found the depiction of Manhattan almost unrecognizable in this book. It could have been any other place i have never been to but it certainly didn't feel like the place I've always known as home.
The stories could have been interesting, perhaps they even were. But the overall discomfort I felt throughout the stories pretty much ruined any sense of enjoyment I could have gotten out of this book.
The stories could have been interesting, perhaps they even were. But the overall discomfort I felt throughout the stories pretty much ruined any sense of enjoyment I could have gotten out of this book.
August 14, 2007
Second time I've read this unbearably charming book and I might have liked it more than when I first read it in 2002. I've bought this for at least 4 friends and they also really, really liked it.
The book is comprised of linked stories set around a particular mysterious old apartment building. It's just romantic and enchanting in an edgy, non chick lit way. Wonderful.
The book is comprised of linked stories set around a particular mysterious old apartment building. It's just romantic and enchanting in an edgy, non chick lit way. Wonderful.
December 18, 2013
4.5 stars. Interconnected short stories; emotional but never maudlin, quirky without being insufferable about it. The writing's uniformly awesome, though some stories leave more of an impact than others.
March 8, 2018
What an emotional upheaval this fantastic book of stories provides! Schickler's stripped down writing style is vibrant and clever. Several stories stuck to me and I had to revisit. Truly enjoyable on every level.
July 30, 2013
In the end, I give this book 5 stars because of its inventiveness and general absurdity of the characters that just works in weaving interrelated stories into a coherent plot. David Schickler is in the same class of writers as a Bret Eason Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk. He unabashedly writes how aggression leads to sexual attraction but he does it in such a way that it is absurd to think his scenarios can actually happen in real life. At least, he gives equal attention on female assertiveness in sexual attraction as much as male aggressiveness. Scientifically, both dominance patterns has to do with a spike of testosterone which leads to increase libido. Although he is correct that all males have an aggressive side to them that can translate to sexual attraction, his reductive reasoning between aggression and sexuality can only be seen in fiction .
Checkers and Donna:
Donna wants a man who can dominate her in every way. She rejects the Bobo man's penchant for extreme sports as a man whose soul is starved or dead even if they make money. Mrs Vivian Donna's ballet teacher had the ability to tell what a girls destiny was to become. According to Mrs. Vivian Donna's destiny was to become a man's woman. After many years trying to disprove Mrs. Vivian that she belongs to a man, she finally wants the premonition to come true. At age 32, Donna wants a good fuck not a soulmate. How else can one explain going home with someone after a horrible first date just because he appeals to ones animalistic lust?
As part of Patrick's entourage, Checkers and Donna become an inseparable and infamous couple.
Jacob's Bath:
Rachel loved Jacob but he was dismayed by the wedding because he lacked gravitas unlike all his guests. Jacob was not built for glory but instead for the simple life. Jacob asked Rachel for marriage because she was an easy catch. He hoped that Rachel was not secretly a high-maintenance girl that wanted things he could not provide. During their nuptial night, Jacob loved how Rachel bathed him. Their bath became a ritual of love and devotion from a wife to her husband. The ritual continued all through their married life. Their children equated their nighttime bath with sex.
Rachel former co-worker, Susan was disturbed that she made a living giving voice to the most depraved impulse of mankind and deduced that she must crave the depravity herself. When Susan heard about Jacob and Rachel's bathing ritual, she was touched and decided to write a column as a homage to the ritual and as hope for the world against the depravity of men. Jacob was pissed that their ritual was no longer theirs but instead belonged to the world.
4th Angry Mouse:
Robby Jax had a knack for telling stories with dead pan humor. Jeremy idolized his grandfather and wanted to be just like him. Robby told Jeremy that the secret to his success was just to relax. In college, Jeremy tried out in a talent show and sucked so that night he screwed a girl who equally sucked with anger and frustration that both of them shared. After his horrible failure as a comedian, he turned to tragic Russian authors like Chekov or Dostoyvesky. As he turned serious in the play "Of Mice&Mice" as the 4th Angry Mice, everyone started loving Jeremy as the angry mice. The more the playwright and Jeremy got pissed off by everyone laughing at him, the more hilarious it became so more people wanted to see the play. While Frieda made a career off her awful voice, Jeremy got pissed off because Frieda's popularity made her reject his sexual advances. So his desire to be funny turned dark when people laughed at him for being serious.
The Opals:
James is a creature of habit that gets his adventures from gastronomic delights. One night he was late to come into his favorite restaurant, so with the wait he wondered around and found an S&M sex shop and saw a red-headed Barbie that got him flustered. James likes finding unexpected places in his wondering through his life's routines. While in the sex shop, he came upon a jeweler in the basement. Looking at the jewels, he decided that the permanence with which jewels brought women was appropriate. John, the jeweler, asked if James had a girlfriend which jewels did he want. He responded with the OPALS and elegant non-descript piece of jewelry. John insisted that James keep the jewelry since John predicts that James will have a girlfriend very soon. According to Barby, the jeweler, John, did not exist so he suspects a miracle that he will have a girlfriend very soon.
Kissing in Manhattan:
Rally is travel writer looking for her soul mate. She looks for love in the exotic locals that she visits. She wants to kiss and commune with people who live a solitary life and it comes out in her writing which makes her a fabulous writer. At club Rally meets Patrick, a wall-street trader who carries a gun. He is a psychopathic sadist. Patrick objectifies women and Rally likes it. I guess for people looking for a one-night stand being an object of desire could be flattering for someone not getting any action. Patrick is used to buying and using women. He likes to toy with them mentally and emotionally before doing anything to them. The ritual that Patrick uses including Rally, is he picks Rally every Friday spend thousands of dollars on a dress and making her look good, have dinner, then take her back to his place, cuts up the dress and makes her stand in front of the mirror to make her look at herself while he holds her hands behind her back so all she can do is look at herself in front of the mirror. He wants her to make her see her beauty. By the 5th week, she comes to enjoy the obsession that Patrick showers on her. She begins to appreciate her beauty but she is frustrated at the long drawn out tease. Rally lacks self-esteem if she continues to see Patrick since he is not meeting her needs as a woman.
Duty:
Patrick's brother died in some freak accident in a theme park in a time before safety regulations were present and enforced. As a 6 yrs old, the absurdity of Patrick's brothers death made him a sadist millionaire drunk on his own power. With the absurdity of his brothers death, he feels as though he is constantly in a straight-jacket. The only way he can relax is when he carries a gun, listen to a priest, and tying beautiful women in his bedroom. His brother's death made him a psychopath. With a gun, he likes knowing that he has the power to take life if he wants to including his own. He likes listening to Fr. Merchant because he preaches a God that needs to be obeyed rather than embraced which Patrick appreciates considering his penchant for S&M.
With women, he likes worshiping women's beautiful bodies so he ties them up and makes them look at themselves. He does his ritual in order for woman to know the power he has over them by his material prowess and physical strength. He also wants them to realize and feel the power they have over him by their sheer beauty. He wants women to experience their own beauty and what turns a man on. After a month of training her to appreciate her beauty, he ties her naked to the bed while he entertains graduates of his affair. For the graduates, he starts talking to them and shares intimate details because they have proven to him that they can be vulnerable to him and trust him completely. At this point, they are comfortable with their bodies especially around him so they relax and open up to him. During his party, he picks one woman who has gone through the entire process for months and has her orgasm immediately upon touching them because of the build up of months of anticipation and delayed gratification combined with being totally comfortable being nude with him and herself.
He says that he will continue having different girls until he finds someone who immediately appreciates their own beauty in the mirror that he immediately devours them.
The Smoker:
Douglas is a teacher in an AP English course in an all-girls private school St. Agnus with a boxer's built, a Harvard PhD in English Literature, and no significant other. Douglas was a solitary man who loved books, watching films, and seemed content with his life. His AP English course engages the best and the brightest that consisted of 6 girls. He was proud on how gifted his students were and began to project into the future what their lives would be like down the line. Douglas prides himself in making his student shine through his letter of recommendations. He was a wordsmith who knew exactly what to say in written or spoken language. So he was puzzled that when he talked to Nicole one night that he was at a loss to what to say to her. He also dreamt about being with her.
Nicole a 5'10" 19 yrs old who is Douglas' smartest student goes after him because she wants to. Using the wonderful letter of recommendation that got her into Princeton as a pretext, Nicole invited Douglas over to her parents place for dinner. The Bonner's lived in the Preemption penthouse. Nicole wore a form fitted dress that showed her figure perfectly in a blatant attempt to seduce Douglas. Being from this strange family, Nicole thought it was normal for her parents to demand that their guest teach them something in order for the night to continue. The Bonners are royalty from the Carpathian mountains who have a strange need for their own familial order.
The Bonner's are proposing marriage of Nicole to Douglas because according to Nicole they had similar and complementary interests. Nicole likes Douglas too and with her shapely clothes she certainly caught Douglas' eyes. Nicole's beauty is softening Douglas from the absurdity of the situation. Nicole wants to marry because she wants to avoid a life of loneliness citing Patrick who ties women up in order to alleviate his loneliness. Nicole knows that Douglas is a loner and thinks it is not healthy. She also states that she has dated enough men to know what she wants is Douglas. She is not in love with Douglas but is prepared to be infatuated with him when they commit to each other. The engagement concluded when Douglas asked her to punch him in the stomach to show him her seriousness of the engagement.
SERENDIPITY:
Leonard is a brilliant former-Rhodes scholar current top trial-lawyer who is disgruntled because of a port-wine stain deformity near his right eye. He is pissed in what he perceives as a deformity that makes him unable to attain the type of women he wants. Just like all other of Schickler misogynistic men, he saw women as objects that could be conquered if one was good looking and rich enough. Predictably like all women in his books even the most accomplished ones, Hannah wants to be dominated by men in bed. While Allison is a 35 yrs. old stocky woman ho is shy around men, Hannah is a 26 yrs old gorgeous blond who is an heiress to her father's Serendipity fortune and Tuft's political science graduate who had 1400+ SAT. Leonard plans to get Hannah via sleeping with Allison.
After noticing that Leonard is sleeping with Allison while actually lusting after Hannah, she decided to follow Leonard in cherrywood bar and seduce him by her librarian looks of someone who is smart but likes to fukc men. When they get to her apartment, she locks him outside naked. She is getting off the sexual power she has over her professional superior. She is teaching Leonard a lesson in hiding behind Allison while lusting after Hannah because Leonard is ashamed of his physical deformity. She is teaching him to have pride in his looks by turning a deformity into a fake story in order to intrigue a beautiful girl into sleeping with him. Hannah says that sex is beastly, cruel, and necessary and she honor her agreement with Leonard when he guessed her father sold perfume since she was turned on by the power she had over him.
TALKING TO OTIS:
James talks to an elevator named Otis every night when his roommate is having parties. Growing up, James was a shy stutterer so he chose reading books in his own room to hanging out with kids his own age. In his home, he hid out in the dumbwaiter as his monastic sanctuary where he studied calculus something that he understood could never betray him like his linguistic skills or other people. In an attempt to bring him out of his shell especially to get him interested in the opposite sex and get rid of his stuttering problem at the same time, parents brought in an attractive speech pathologist Venenzuelan woman named Anamaria. By his junior year, his stuttering was cured but no one knew because he talked to no one but Anamaria. He fell in love with Anamaria unconscious beauty, full hips, and dark reverent mood n her glances and speech. In the evening, he would sit in the dumbwaiter and talk to his beloved Anamaria telling her how much he loved her. When Anamaria told him that she would leave to marry her lost boyfriend, James confessed to her his dream of taking her to the Himalayas and fill each other up until they were utterly spent.
When Anamaria left to get married to her boyfriend, James spent the next 7 yrs inside his mind graduating summa cum laude in accounting and international economics and was hired by a Wall Street firm with an accompanying 6 figure salary. At 25 years old, he became a recluse that only NYC could hide. From James' point of view, Patrick's evening ritual was stranger than his in hiding and talking to Otis the elevator his confidant. James sees Patrick bring a different beautiful girl to his room each night dressed up and leaving an hour later in jeans and sweatshirt looking either confused or at peace. Then at midnight, Patrick has an eclectic mix of people and a bunch of gorgeous women who are all attentive to Patrick's every gesture or whim.
James' ritual of talking to Otis went unbroken until Dec. 21, 1999 when Patrick demanded that James becomes part of his entourage for 2 weeks of bacchanal delights. Meanwhile, Rally was hooked to Patrick's vision of her as a sex goddess so she continued with Patrick's S&M program. On the night of Dec 21, Rally was splayed nude spread eagle tied up on Patrick bed and was so bored and past modesty that she begged the reticent james to stay and talk to her. At this point in the S&M process, Rally understand that Patrick wants her to fall in love with her sexy body and now she unconsciously flaunts her body and asks James a rhetorical question that doesn't he find her body sexy. Rally's sexual frustration has led her to talk bluntly about sex to James.
James never had parental guidance in the topic of sex. His only youthful "sexual attraction" came from the unattainable Anamaria. His other two collegiate physical experience came from people he could care less about so when Rally came into his life he was unprepared. He immediately wanted to see Rally again so he went to all of Patrick's soirees. In one soiree, Rally met James and told him it was good he was not like Patrick's other frat boy friends. Rally remembered James from her visit in the Cloisters when she was contemplating how sexy she was while James came and commented on the unicorn tapestry. James notices that Patrick is jealously protective to all the members of his harem. It is at this point that James senses a psychotic edge that could end in mass shootings by Patrick.
James has one-itis that he is hyper-focused on one woman, Rally, at the exclusion of all others so when Frieda throws herself at him, he rejects her. He did not like being played by Patrick so he rejects his gift of Frieda. James felt as though Patrick had an unnatural control over women who were enthralled by him. James wondered why these woman submitted themselves to Patrick's wishes including his wish not to talk to other men that they liked as in the case of Rally interest toward James (b/c he made them realize their beauty while for him it is about the power of the effect he had on women). He had some sort of twisted chivalrous code toward his harem protecting them from other men.
In Minator, Rally crashed in on Patrick's party and saw James and immediately invited him to dance with her. From that night on for 10 days, they luxuriated in each others company with their insatiable desire to be together. Rally told James that he was the "tiger" she was waiting for not Patrick. Meanwhile, Patrick was pissed that one of his women from his harem that he made by making her realize how beautiful she is body and soul picked quiet James over him. Since he used his women as a security blanket that ordered his world, he felt unhinged when one of them especially one that was progressing so well in his program leaves him for a man he considers inferior.
IN BLACK:
Father Thomas Merchant was born with a good heart but not much else. After being orphaned at a young age, he was sent to live with his triplet spinsters aunties in Harlem who according to local legend were rich.
To compensate for the overwhelming assault on his senses, he began to intently concentrate on anything that was close by including Jocelyn's tits. He wanted to slow the process of life down. He scared people away because he had a gift of premonition combined with a heightened sense of compassion that literally made him feel other people's pain. People were scared because he could see into their souls. By being kept in the warehouse growing up, Thomas developed a contemplative nature that led him into seminary school. At least, he has been with women and find they do not have the patience to understand their beauty. I do not know why but I inherently trust priest who know what it is like to be with women but realize that female companionship is not for them more than someone who is chaste.
As a priest, "Thomas was a ,mystic not a missionary, and he preferred a subtle, monkish obedience and contemplation of the Divine over any heroic work in conversion, he gave sermons on discernment and grace not politics" He was a happy contemplative until he was 47 when Patrick came into the church and Thomas could smell the stench from hell on Patrick. He felt as though Patrick drained his energy when he spoke. To target Patrick's fetid soul, Thomas started to focus his sermons on Patrick with apocalyptic overtones much to the discomfort of his other parishioners.
This battle with evil went on until one night Patrick came into confession to tell Fr. Thomas that he was going to murder James for "stealing" one woman from his harem. He explains that his harem serves to lessen the pain of losing his brother to the absurdity of anime guppy fish. The priest told Patrick he cannot murder James because not only is it against God's laws to kill but also says that God accepts Patrick unconditionally despite his sins because he has given Patrick a stench that can only be identified by the priest who was meant to save his soul. When Patrick runs out of the confessional, the priest finally knew that God gave him a task for him to act on.
Checkers and Donna:
Donna wants a man who can dominate her in every way. She rejects the Bobo man's penchant for extreme sports as a man whose soul is starved or dead even if they make money. Mrs Vivian Donna's ballet teacher had the ability to tell what a girls destiny was to become. According to Mrs. Vivian Donna's destiny was to become a man's woman. After many years trying to disprove Mrs. Vivian that she belongs to a man, she finally wants the premonition to come true. At age 32, Donna wants a good fuck not a soulmate. How else can one explain going home with someone after a horrible first date just because he appeals to ones animalistic lust?
As part of Patrick's entourage, Checkers and Donna become an inseparable and infamous couple.
Jacob's Bath:
Rachel loved Jacob but he was dismayed by the wedding because he lacked gravitas unlike all his guests. Jacob was not built for glory but instead for the simple life. Jacob asked Rachel for marriage because she was an easy catch. He hoped that Rachel was not secretly a high-maintenance girl that wanted things he could not provide. During their nuptial night, Jacob loved how Rachel bathed him. Their bath became a ritual of love and devotion from a wife to her husband. The ritual continued all through their married life. Their children equated their nighttime bath with sex.
Rachel former co-worker, Susan was disturbed that she made a living giving voice to the most depraved impulse of mankind and deduced that she must crave the depravity herself. When Susan heard about Jacob and Rachel's bathing ritual, she was touched and decided to write a column as a homage to the ritual and as hope for the world against the depravity of men. Jacob was pissed that their ritual was no longer theirs but instead belonged to the world.
4th Angry Mouse:
Robby Jax had a knack for telling stories with dead pan humor. Jeremy idolized his grandfather and wanted to be just like him. Robby told Jeremy that the secret to his success was just to relax. In college, Jeremy tried out in a talent show and sucked so that night he screwed a girl who equally sucked with anger and frustration that both of them shared. After his horrible failure as a comedian, he turned to tragic Russian authors like Chekov or Dostoyvesky. As he turned serious in the play "Of Mice&Mice" as the 4th Angry Mice, everyone started loving Jeremy as the angry mice. The more the playwright and Jeremy got pissed off by everyone laughing at him, the more hilarious it became so more people wanted to see the play. While Frieda made a career off her awful voice, Jeremy got pissed off because Frieda's popularity made her reject his sexual advances. So his desire to be funny turned dark when people laughed at him for being serious.
The Opals:
James is a creature of habit that gets his adventures from gastronomic delights. One night he was late to come into his favorite restaurant, so with the wait he wondered around and found an S&M sex shop and saw a red-headed Barbie that got him flustered. James likes finding unexpected places in his wondering through his life's routines. While in the sex shop, he came upon a jeweler in the basement. Looking at the jewels, he decided that the permanence with which jewels brought women was appropriate. John, the jeweler, asked if James had a girlfriend which jewels did he want. He responded with the OPALS and elegant non-descript piece of jewelry. John insisted that James keep the jewelry since John predicts that James will have a girlfriend very soon. According to Barby, the jeweler, John, did not exist so he suspects a miracle that he will have a girlfriend very soon.
Kissing in Manhattan:
Rally is travel writer looking for her soul mate. She looks for love in the exotic locals that she visits. She wants to kiss and commune with people who live a solitary life and it comes out in her writing which makes her a fabulous writer. At club Rally meets Patrick, a wall-street trader who carries a gun. He is a psychopathic sadist. Patrick objectifies women and Rally likes it. I guess for people looking for a one-night stand being an object of desire could be flattering for someone not getting any action. Patrick is used to buying and using women. He likes to toy with them mentally and emotionally before doing anything to them. The ritual that Patrick uses including Rally, is he picks Rally every Friday spend thousands of dollars on a dress and making her look good, have dinner, then take her back to his place, cuts up the dress and makes her stand in front of the mirror to make her look at herself while he holds her hands behind her back so all she can do is look at herself in front of the mirror. He wants her to make her see her beauty. By the 5th week, she comes to enjoy the obsession that Patrick showers on her. She begins to appreciate her beauty but she is frustrated at the long drawn out tease. Rally lacks self-esteem if she continues to see Patrick since he is not meeting her needs as a woman.
Duty:
Patrick's brother died in some freak accident in a theme park in a time before safety regulations were present and enforced. As a 6 yrs old, the absurdity of Patrick's brothers death made him a sadist millionaire drunk on his own power. With the absurdity of his brothers death, he feels as though he is constantly in a straight-jacket. The only way he can relax is when he carries a gun, listen to a priest, and tying beautiful women in his bedroom. His brother's death made him a psychopath. With a gun, he likes knowing that he has the power to take life if he wants to including his own. He likes listening to Fr. Merchant because he preaches a God that needs to be obeyed rather than embraced which Patrick appreciates considering his penchant for S&M.
With women, he likes worshiping women's beautiful bodies so he ties them up and makes them look at themselves. He does his ritual in order for woman to know the power he has over them by his material prowess and physical strength. He also wants them to realize and feel the power they have over him by their sheer beauty. He wants women to experience their own beauty and what turns a man on. After a month of training her to appreciate her beauty, he ties her naked to the bed while he entertains graduates of his affair. For the graduates, he starts talking to them and shares intimate details because they have proven to him that they can be vulnerable to him and trust him completely. At this point, they are comfortable with their bodies especially around him so they relax and open up to him. During his party, he picks one woman who has gone through the entire process for months and has her orgasm immediately upon touching them because of the build up of months of anticipation and delayed gratification combined with being totally comfortable being nude with him and herself.
He says that he will continue having different girls until he finds someone who immediately appreciates their own beauty in the mirror that he immediately devours them.
The Smoker:
Douglas is a teacher in an AP English course in an all-girls private school St. Agnus with a boxer's built, a Harvard PhD in English Literature, and no significant other. Douglas was a solitary man who loved books, watching films, and seemed content with his life. His AP English course engages the best and the brightest that consisted of 6 girls. He was proud on how gifted his students were and began to project into the future what their lives would be like down the line. Douglas prides himself in making his student shine through his letter of recommendations. He was a wordsmith who knew exactly what to say in written or spoken language. So he was puzzled that when he talked to Nicole one night that he was at a loss to what to say to her. He also dreamt about being with her.
Nicole a 5'10" 19 yrs old who is Douglas' smartest student goes after him because she wants to. Using the wonderful letter of recommendation that got her into Princeton as a pretext, Nicole invited Douglas over to her parents place for dinner. The Bonner's lived in the Preemption penthouse. Nicole wore a form fitted dress that showed her figure perfectly in a blatant attempt to seduce Douglas. Being from this strange family, Nicole thought it was normal for her parents to demand that their guest teach them something in order for the night to continue. The Bonners are royalty from the Carpathian mountains who have a strange need for their own familial order.
The Bonner's are proposing marriage of Nicole to Douglas because according to Nicole they had similar and complementary interests. Nicole likes Douglas too and with her shapely clothes she certainly caught Douglas' eyes. Nicole's beauty is softening Douglas from the absurdity of the situation. Nicole wants to marry because she wants to avoid a life of loneliness citing Patrick who ties women up in order to alleviate his loneliness. Nicole knows that Douglas is a loner and thinks it is not healthy. She also states that she has dated enough men to know what she wants is Douglas. She is not in love with Douglas but is prepared to be infatuated with him when they commit to each other. The engagement concluded when Douglas asked her to punch him in the stomach to show him her seriousness of the engagement.
SERENDIPITY:
Leonard is a brilliant former-Rhodes scholar current top trial-lawyer who is disgruntled because of a port-wine stain deformity near his right eye. He is pissed in what he perceives as a deformity that makes him unable to attain the type of women he wants. Just like all other of Schickler misogynistic men, he saw women as objects that could be conquered if one was good looking and rich enough. Predictably like all women in his books even the most accomplished ones, Hannah wants to be dominated by men in bed. While Allison is a 35 yrs. old stocky woman ho is shy around men, Hannah is a 26 yrs old gorgeous blond who is an heiress to her father's Serendipity fortune and Tuft's political science graduate who had 1400+ SAT. Leonard plans to get Hannah via sleeping with Allison.
After noticing that Leonard is sleeping with Allison while actually lusting after Hannah, she decided to follow Leonard in cherrywood bar and seduce him by her librarian looks of someone who is smart but likes to fukc men. When they get to her apartment, she locks him outside naked. She is getting off the sexual power she has over her professional superior. She is teaching Leonard a lesson in hiding behind Allison while lusting after Hannah because Leonard is ashamed of his physical deformity. She is teaching him to have pride in his looks by turning a deformity into a fake story in order to intrigue a beautiful girl into sleeping with him. Hannah says that sex is beastly, cruel, and necessary and she honor her agreement with Leonard when he guessed her father sold perfume since she was turned on by the power she had over him.
TALKING TO OTIS:
James talks to an elevator named Otis every night when his roommate is having parties. Growing up, James was a shy stutterer so he chose reading books in his own room to hanging out with kids his own age. In his home, he hid out in the dumbwaiter as his monastic sanctuary where he studied calculus something that he understood could never betray him like his linguistic skills or other people. In an attempt to bring him out of his shell especially to get him interested in the opposite sex and get rid of his stuttering problem at the same time, parents brought in an attractive speech pathologist Venenzuelan woman named Anamaria. By his junior year, his stuttering was cured but no one knew because he talked to no one but Anamaria. He fell in love with Anamaria unconscious beauty, full hips, and dark reverent mood n her glances and speech. In the evening, he would sit in the dumbwaiter and talk to his beloved Anamaria telling her how much he loved her. When Anamaria told him that she would leave to marry her lost boyfriend, James confessed to her his dream of taking her to the Himalayas and fill each other up until they were utterly spent.
When Anamaria left to get married to her boyfriend, James spent the next 7 yrs inside his mind graduating summa cum laude in accounting and international economics and was hired by a Wall Street firm with an accompanying 6 figure salary. At 25 years old, he became a recluse that only NYC could hide. From James' point of view, Patrick's evening ritual was stranger than his in hiding and talking to Otis the elevator his confidant. James sees Patrick bring a different beautiful girl to his room each night dressed up and leaving an hour later in jeans and sweatshirt looking either confused or at peace. Then at midnight, Patrick has an eclectic mix of people and a bunch of gorgeous women who are all attentive to Patrick's every gesture or whim.
James' ritual of talking to Otis went unbroken until Dec. 21, 1999 when Patrick demanded that James becomes part of his entourage for 2 weeks of bacchanal delights. Meanwhile, Rally was hooked to Patrick's vision of her as a sex goddess so she continued with Patrick's S&M program. On the night of Dec 21, Rally was splayed nude spread eagle tied up on Patrick bed and was so bored and past modesty that she begged the reticent james to stay and talk to her. At this point in the S&M process, Rally understand that Patrick wants her to fall in love with her sexy body and now she unconsciously flaunts her body and asks James a rhetorical question that doesn't he find her body sexy. Rally's sexual frustration has led her to talk bluntly about sex to James.
James never had parental guidance in the topic of sex. His only youthful "sexual attraction" came from the unattainable Anamaria. His other two collegiate physical experience came from people he could care less about so when Rally came into his life he was unprepared. He immediately wanted to see Rally again so he went to all of Patrick's soirees. In one soiree, Rally met James and told him it was good he was not like Patrick's other frat boy friends. Rally remembered James from her visit in the Cloisters when she was contemplating how sexy she was while James came and commented on the unicorn tapestry. James notices that Patrick is jealously protective to all the members of his harem. It is at this point that James senses a psychotic edge that could end in mass shootings by Patrick.
James has one-itis that he is hyper-focused on one woman, Rally, at the exclusion of all others so when Frieda throws herself at him, he rejects her. He did not like being played by Patrick so he rejects his gift of Frieda. James felt as though Patrick had an unnatural control over women who were enthralled by him. James wondered why these woman submitted themselves to Patrick's wishes including his wish not to talk to other men that they liked as in the case of Rally interest toward James (b/c he made them realize their beauty while for him it is about the power of the effect he had on women). He had some sort of twisted chivalrous code toward his harem protecting them from other men.
In Minator, Rally crashed in on Patrick's party and saw James and immediately invited him to dance with her. From that night on for 10 days, they luxuriated in each others company with their insatiable desire to be together. Rally told James that he was the "tiger" she was waiting for not Patrick. Meanwhile, Patrick was pissed that one of his women from his harem that he made by making her realize how beautiful she is body and soul picked quiet James over him. Since he used his women as a security blanket that ordered his world, he felt unhinged when one of them especially one that was progressing so well in his program leaves him for a man he considers inferior.
IN BLACK:
Father Thomas Merchant was born with a good heart but not much else. After being orphaned at a young age, he was sent to live with his triplet spinsters aunties in Harlem who according to local legend were rich.
To compensate for the overwhelming assault on his senses, he began to intently concentrate on anything that was close by including Jocelyn's tits. He wanted to slow the process of life down. He scared people away because he had a gift of premonition combined with a heightened sense of compassion that literally made him feel other people's pain. People were scared because he could see into their souls. By being kept in the warehouse growing up, Thomas developed a contemplative nature that led him into seminary school. At least, he has been with women and find they do not have the patience to understand their beauty. I do not know why but I inherently trust priest who know what it is like to be with women but realize that female companionship is not for them more than someone who is chaste.
As a priest, "Thomas was a ,mystic not a missionary, and he preferred a subtle, monkish obedience and contemplation of the Divine over any heroic work in conversion, he gave sermons on discernment and grace not politics" He was a happy contemplative until he was 47 when Patrick came into the church and Thomas could smell the stench from hell on Patrick. He felt as though Patrick drained his energy when he spoke. To target Patrick's fetid soul, Thomas started to focus his sermons on Patrick with apocalyptic overtones much to the discomfort of his other parishioners.
This battle with evil went on until one night Patrick came into confession to tell Fr. Thomas that he was going to murder James for "stealing" one woman from his harem. He explains that his harem serves to lessen the pain of losing his brother to the absurdity of anime guppy fish. The priest told Patrick he cannot murder James because not only is it against God's laws to kill but also says that God accepts Patrick unconditionally despite his sins because he has given Patrick a stench that can only be identified by the priest who was meant to save his soul. When Patrick runs out of the confessional, the priest finally knew that God gave him a task for him to act on.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2008
by David Schickler
My general process of reading short story collections is: read the first story, hopefully the second, then skip ahead to the story I've seen already published that made me buy the book, then skip to a random story, then eventually leave the book on the shelf in the bathroom where I'll pretend that someday I'll finish it while I've got nothing better to be reading. Usually I really love one short story (usually the one I read somewhere else already) and I wind up wishing it was a whole book, and resenting the rest of the stories for not being a continuation of the one story I liked.
Kissing in Manhattan came to me in much this same fashion. A colleague at work was teaching the story "The Smoker" in her class last week. When I ran into her, she was bubbling, having forgotten how good the story was since the last time she'd read it, and then she even went so far as to say that she'd thought of me while re-reading it the night before. We often swap reviews on stories, and this is high praise, so I immediately read the story on the New Yorker's website and was not disappointed. "The Smoker" is a charming little story about Douglas, a 12th Grade AP English teacher at an all-girls school in Manhattan, and his student Nicole, who has fallen for him. She eventually invites him to have dinner with her parents, as a thank you for a Letter of Recommendation to Princeton, and once there, Nicole's parents make Douglas a rather surprising proposition (I won't give it away). Anyway, it was a phenomenally funny and touching story - and sentimental in a way that you don't get much anymore. Feeling in need of some sentiment to wash off the residue of American Psycho, I rushed out that afternoon and picked up Schickler's whole collection.
Immediately, I worried. What if the rest of the stories were different? Surely they all couldn't be about Douglas and Nicole, and secretly I knew I just wanted to read a whole novel about the two of them, as per usual. But I decided that perhaps there would be new stories, new characters, that I would topple for. Fortunately, I did. The first story almost threw me off: "Checkers and Donna" - a story about a terrible first date between self-important, spoiled Donna and a cavalier gentleman who actually is named Checkers. I didn't like either of them, though I did enjoy the unexpected turns in their little first date. "Where are Douglas and Nicole?" I began to cry.
But the next story "Jacob's Bath" was enough to sweep me back off my feet again. It opens with a young guy, Jacob, getting married to Rachel, and feeling rather disconnected from the ceremony. We follow them to their honeymoon, where Jacob is accidentally sprayed by a skunk and Rachel gives him a bath. Thus begins a long tradition that goes all the way through their turbulent marriage, where Rachel bathes her husband each and every night. The ritual gets them through affairs and through deaths in the family. Finally the legend gets out when an elderly Rachel finally confesses to her love-scorned friend, and things are very nearly spoiled by the publicity that ensues. Again - original, sweet, and true.
Instead of skipping ahead to find "The Smoker," I stuck around to read the third story "Fourth Angry Mouse" which appealed immensely to the former actor in me. Things began to get strange with "The Opals" a story about a man who finds a secret jewelry shop in the basement of a sex emporium, where he is given mystical earrings to give to his future wife. It reminded me of a series I read when I was a kid, where a boy gets a dragon's egg from a mysterious shop that he can't ever find again. But OK, everyone is entitled to a little mystical junk, right? I moved on to "Kissing in Manhattan," the title story itself...
Here, things began to get strange. But not in a terrible way, exactly. The story is about another young woman, this time named Rally, who meets a handsome stockbroker named Patrick, who will turn out to be utterly insane... wait... didn't I just read American Psycho? Rather than slice up his girlfriends, this story's Patrick buys his dates expensive clothing, slices it off of them, and then makes them stare at themselves in the mirror for hours, until they can "see what he sees." Strange, but yet, at this point I trust Schickler to pull this all off somehow.
Lo and behold... the very next story, "Duty", is told from Patrick's POV, with a great back story about how he came to be such a weirdo. This is the first major overlap between stories, though I had already noticed that many of the other characters lived in the same apartment building "The Preemption" and went to the same couple of restaurants and clubs as each other. Next came "The Smoker", which I found myself skipping, rather than re-reading, because I was so curious to see if there was more about Patrick. I did note that the whole story has a somewhat more chilling feel to it, when you think that somewhere just down the hall in The Preemption, where Douglas and Nicole are dining with her parents, Patrick is slicing the clothes off another woman.
The remaining four stories all indeed continue the story of Patrick, as his roommate James falls in love with Rally and he becomes (insanely) jealous and threatens to kill everyone involved. A priest gets involved and everything ends with an unexpectedly dramatic little climax. I almost felt that these last stories could have been one complete little novella. Plot-wise, they don't entirely stand on their own, at least it's hard to imagine any of these being published in the New Yorker without the others around it. But he does switch perspectives between stories and give more and more background about the central characters. Ultimately, I was happy to have read it all the way through, and really startled at how cool I found these interlinking stories. It's not a style you see a lot anymore... I don't actually know if I've read any since my Senior workshop days. And yes, there was that nagging bit in me saying, "Well geez, if you're going to have all these interlinking stories, why NOT make them about Douglas and Nicole and not this Psycho Patrick?" Still, I enjoyed it from start to finish and found I couldn't wait to pick it up again, which is a rare thing for me and a short story collection.
PS - All these reviews and more at my BookBlog - http://perpetualshotgun.blogspot.com/
My general process of reading short story collections is: read the first story, hopefully the second, then skip ahead to the story I've seen already published that made me buy the book, then skip to a random story, then eventually leave the book on the shelf in the bathroom where I'll pretend that someday I'll finish it while I've got nothing better to be reading. Usually I really love one short story (usually the one I read somewhere else already) and I wind up wishing it was a whole book, and resenting the rest of the stories for not being a continuation of the one story I liked.
Kissing in Manhattan came to me in much this same fashion. A colleague at work was teaching the story "The Smoker" in her class last week. When I ran into her, she was bubbling, having forgotten how good the story was since the last time she'd read it, and then she even went so far as to say that she'd thought of me while re-reading it the night before. We often swap reviews on stories, and this is high praise, so I immediately read the story on the New Yorker's website and was not disappointed. "The Smoker" is a charming little story about Douglas, a 12th Grade AP English teacher at an all-girls school in Manhattan, and his student Nicole, who has fallen for him. She eventually invites him to have dinner with her parents, as a thank you for a Letter of Recommendation to Princeton, and once there, Nicole's parents make Douglas a rather surprising proposition (I won't give it away). Anyway, it was a phenomenally funny and touching story - and sentimental in a way that you don't get much anymore. Feeling in need of some sentiment to wash off the residue of American Psycho, I rushed out that afternoon and picked up Schickler's whole collection.
Immediately, I worried. What if the rest of the stories were different? Surely they all couldn't be about Douglas and Nicole, and secretly I knew I just wanted to read a whole novel about the two of them, as per usual. But I decided that perhaps there would be new stories, new characters, that I would topple for. Fortunately, I did. The first story almost threw me off: "Checkers and Donna" - a story about a terrible first date between self-important, spoiled Donna and a cavalier gentleman who actually is named Checkers. I didn't like either of them, though I did enjoy the unexpected turns in their little first date. "Where are Douglas and Nicole?" I began to cry.
But the next story "Jacob's Bath" was enough to sweep me back off my feet again. It opens with a young guy, Jacob, getting married to Rachel, and feeling rather disconnected from the ceremony. We follow them to their honeymoon, where Jacob is accidentally sprayed by a skunk and Rachel gives him a bath. Thus begins a long tradition that goes all the way through their turbulent marriage, where Rachel bathes her husband each and every night. The ritual gets them through affairs and through deaths in the family. Finally the legend gets out when an elderly Rachel finally confesses to her love-scorned friend, and things are very nearly spoiled by the publicity that ensues. Again - original, sweet, and true.
Instead of skipping ahead to find "The Smoker," I stuck around to read the third story "Fourth Angry Mouse" which appealed immensely to the former actor in me. Things began to get strange with "The Opals" a story about a man who finds a secret jewelry shop in the basement of a sex emporium, where he is given mystical earrings to give to his future wife. It reminded me of a series I read when I was a kid, where a boy gets a dragon's egg from a mysterious shop that he can't ever find again. But OK, everyone is entitled to a little mystical junk, right? I moved on to "Kissing in Manhattan," the title story itself...
Here, things began to get strange. But not in a terrible way, exactly. The story is about another young woman, this time named Rally, who meets a handsome stockbroker named Patrick, who will turn out to be utterly insane... wait... didn't I just read American Psycho? Rather than slice up his girlfriends, this story's Patrick buys his dates expensive clothing, slices it off of them, and then makes them stare at themselves in the mirror for hours, until they can "see what he sees." Strange, but yet, at this point I trust Schickler to pull this all off somehow.
Lo and behold... the very next story, "Duty", is told from Patrick's POV, with a great back story about how he came to be such a weirdo. This is the first major overlap between stories, though I had already noticed that many of the other characters lived in the same apartment building "The Preemption" and went to the same couple of restaurants and clubs as each other. Next came "The Smoker", which I found myself skipping, rather than re-reading, because I was so curious to see if there was more about Patrick. I did note that the whole story has a somewhat more chilling feel to it, when you think that somewhere just down the hall in The Preemption, where Douglas and Nicole are dining with her parents, Patrick is slicing the clothes off another woman.
The remaining four stories all indeed continue the story of Patrick, as his roommate James falls in love with Rally and he becomes (insanely) jealous and threatens to kill everyone involved. A priest gets involved and everything ends with an unexpectedly dramatic little climax. I almost felt that these last stories could have been one complete little novella. Plot-wise, they don't entirely stand on their own, at least it's hard to imagine any of these being published in the New Yorker without the others around it. But he does switch perspectives between stories and give more and more background about the central characters. Ultimately, I was happy to have read it all the way through, and really startled at how cool I found these interlinking stories. It's not a style you see a lot anymore... I don't actually know if I've read any since my Senior workshop days. And yes, there was that nagging bit in me saying, "Well geez, if you're going to have all these interlinking stories, why NOT make them about Douglas and Nicole and not this Psycho Patrick?" Still, I enjoyed it from start to finish and found I couldn't wait to pick it up again, which is a rare thing for me and a short story collection.
PS - All these reviews and more at my BookBlog - http://perpetualshotgun.blogspot.com/
July 27, 2011
Wow. This was definitely a .. different set of stories. The setting is Manhattan, but it's almost an alternate Manhattan, so different and otherworldly are the characters.
All of the characters, in one way or another, are tied to the Preemption apartment building. I like this as a focus to tie the stories together, but I think I would have liked a smaller cast of characters. I really liked the Patrick Rigg character, and his conflict with James Branch and Rally. I wanted a little more of that. It was developed more than some of the other conflicts, but not as developed as I would have liked.
Then there were other characters and conflicts. Checkers and Donna, who we meet in the first story, and who make an appearance at Patrick's parties, but we don't really see much of them. And Douglas and Nicole, the teacher who is kind of talked into marrying his student. That was probably the most fascinating relationship that I wanted more of. They, also, made an appearance at Patrick's parties, but I wasn't clear why.
It seemed to me that there was one developed conflict, that triangle between Patrick, James, and Rally, and then all these other conflicts that we only see snippets of. I think I would have been happier if there had been two or three more well-developed conflicts, with maybe 3-4 stories each.
But all in all, I thought the writing was really well done. I was right there in the dream with the author. The characters were sympathetic and believable, even in their ridiculousness.
All of the characters, in one way or another, are tied to the Preemption apartment building. I like this as a focus to tie the stories together, but I think I would have liked a smaller cast of characters. I really liked the Patrick Rigg character, and his conflict with James Branch and Rally. I wanted a little more of that. It was developed more than some of the other conflicts, but not as developed as I would have liked.
Then there were other characters and conflicts. Checkers and Donna, who we meet in the first story, and who make an appearance at Patrick's parties, but we don't really see much of them. And Douglas and Nicole, the teacher who is kind of talked into marrying his student. That was probably the most fascinating relationship that I wanted more of. They, also, made an appearance at Patrick's parties, but I wasn't clear why.
It seemed to me that there was one developed conflict, that triangle between Patrick, James, and Rally, and then all these other conflicts that we only see snippets of. I think I would have been happier if there had been two or three more well-developed conflicts, with maybe 3-4 stories each.
But all in all, I thought the writing was really well done. I was right there in the dream with the author. The characters were sympathetic and believable, even in their ridiculousness.
February 4, 2019
Fantásticos relatos que, entrelazados, serpentean por las calles y edificios de la ciudad que nunca duerme. Un ejercicio de Realismo Mágico moderno que Schickler resuelve con buena nota. Recomendable.
Once historias, un lugar, Manhattan, y un edificio, el Preemption, donde la naturaleza humana explora sus límites.
Una cita a ciegas, un ritual íntimo que ve la luz, un hombre frustrado que vive el sueño de otro, un extraño encuentro en un sórdido sótano, una mujer atrapada, su captor, sádico y seductor, una fiera domadora de hombres, una hermosa relación con un objeto inanimado, un cura qué todo lo observa, y una sórdida fiesta que los unirá a todos.
Once historias, un lugar, Manhattan, y un edificio, el Preemption, donde la naturaleza humana explora sus límites.
Una cita a ciegas, un ritual íntimo que ve la luz, un hombre frustrado que vive el sueño de otro, un extraño encuentro en un sórdido sótano, una mujer atrapada, su captor, sádico y seductor, una fiera domadora de hombres, una hermosa relación con un objeto inanimado, un cura qué todo lo observa, y una sórdida fiesta que los unirá a todos.
June 21, 2011
Hated it. To the point where I'm repulsed by it. All the women characters are completely absurd and one-dimensional - clearly, the author doesn't understand women in the least and has some weird idea that we're all just begging to be dominated by some rude, disgusting man. Are you kidding me? I suppose a few of the stories had mildly interesting bits, but most of the book was overwritten, ridiculous, pretentious bullshit. It tries so hard to be profound and urban, and the result is just pathetic. Would NOT recommend.
April 28, 2009
Very well written but very, very odd.
~~
More now that I've thought it over some more. 'Kissing in Manhattan' is undeniably well written, poignant, funny and disturbing. Each story is a slice of life that is tied so intimately with its neighbor that it flows as if truly one larger story. Only a handful of those shorts really, truly belong to the whole but there are bits and pieces of the larger picture in even the weirdest of stories.
It is provoking, both in thought and not.
But I can't honestly say if I liked it very much. Maybe that's the mark of a good writer - I respected the story, I appreciated it, and it was certainly interesting. I enjoyed the last chapter but not necessarily the beginning and I can't really say why.
~~
More now that I've thought it over some more. 'Kissing in Manhattan' is undeniably well written, poignant, funny and disturbing. Each story is a slice of life that is tied so intimately with its neighbor that it flows as if truly one larger story. Only a handful of those shorts really, truly belong to the whole but there are bits and pieces of the larger picture in even the weirdest of stories.
It is provoking, both in thought and not.
But I can't honestly say if I liked it very much. Maybe that's the mark of a good writer - I respected the story, I appreciated it, and it was certainly interesting. I enjoyed the last chapter but not necessarily the beginning and I can't really say why.
September 24, 2009
I can't explain to anyone exactly why I adore this book. It's absolutely everything that I want in a novel - quirky, to the point, both fanciful and yet biting. These characters were all insane in one way or another and yet, it all seemed to make so much heartbreaking sense. I honestly inhaled this novel and felt strangely satisfied upon its completion. To me, a piece of literature isn't as good if it makes me want more; it should stand on its own and leave you with just enough to remember it, but not enough to want something beyond the pages you're given. I could easily ramble on about every aspect that I loved, but to put it simply, this was a really f**king fantastic book. Every word was heartbreak and hope and the lovely intrigue of human existence. Beautiful.
March 29, 2011
First stumbled on this book when a friend told me I had to read "The Smoker." I loved the story, so I read the rest of the book, and loved it as well. The last two stories, and therefore the ending, I could probably live without, but overall I really enjoy the book. I just finished reading it for the second time, and I think I enjoyed it more.
The beginning of the book is more funny and quirky, and it gets a little more dark and serious toward the end. Some of the aspects that other reviewers hated, I enjoyed--the fact that all the characters from the other stories show up at Patrick's parties and the quirky, simplistic descriptions of the characters. David Schickler's no O. Henry, but I think these stories (and this book) are pretty great.
The beginning of the book is more funny and quirky, and it gets a little more dark and serious toward the end. Some of the aspects that other reviewers hated, I enjoyed--the fact that all the characters from the other stories show up at Patrick's parties and the quirky, simplistic descriptions of the characters. David Schickler's no O. Henry, but I think these stories (and this book) are pretty great.
February 13, 2007
El Preemption se alza en Manhattan. Es un edificio de apartamentos que se ve convertido en un territorio entre cuento de hadas y afilada realidad. Personajes extravagantes pero increíblemente reales se van perfilando y entremezclando a lo largo de toda la novela. No he podido parar de leerlo desde que lo he empezado: me parece un retrato inteligentísimo sobre la soledad en una gran ciudad, sobre los aspectos más íntimos de los personajes, sobre búsquedas personales. Es triste, absurdo, bello... todo a un tiempo. Me ha encantado conocerlos a todos, y sobre todo haber descubierto a un autor a tener en cuenta, sin duda.
May 30, 2013
Maybe the most flawless collection of linked short stories I have ever read. Picked up my old copy and meandered into the first offering. Re-read the entire book, sampling every story like an expensive single malt, to the end. If you are from NY, or have ever lived in NY, there is something in here for you. Odd, quirky, relatable, sexy, haunting, tempting. It is the trouble you thought about getting into when you were in your late 20s, but maybe didn't. Do! This is good old-fashioned pre-Kindle NYer style literature to be savored.
March 26, 2023
Yes <3. Some of the stories are kind of weird but I love them. The atmosphere, the overlap of characters, the humor: all 10/10. I don't know why I adored this book so much but something about the narration and the author's craft in setting the tone really did it for me.
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April 5, 2020this book is another example of why i do not like reading women written by male authors
March 18, 2022
I have complicated feelings about this book. I loved the prose—it felt like a cross between Paul Auster’s strangely detailed characters and UWS moodiness, and William Trevor’s / Roald Dahl’s twisted short fiction. The apartment building as a character was a charming touch. I love the depiction of 90s New York, a burst of fast-paced modernity compared to the 70s and 80s, but still an analog world blindly teetering on the precipice of the internet age. But the characters, while rendered three dimensionally, had personalities that seemed hollow and unlikeable, and ultimately the connecting thread between the stories felt a little misogynistic. As another reviewer mentioned, it dipped its toes in what felt like D/s fantasy lite without actually committing to the genre. That said it was cleverly woven and a delight to read, so overall I would still recommend it, especially if you like quirky, irreverent short fiction.
April 7, 2019
Hilarious
Puzzling
Quirky
Spiritual
Spooky
Scary
Sexy
Touching
What an odd little book! Every time I thought I ‘had it figured out,’ the focus flipped , and I was forced to rethink my premis.
This book, which started out on a frolic tone, ended up quite serious.
I’ll be thinking -and rethinking- about it for quite a while.
Puzzling
Quirky
Spiritual
Spooky
Scary
Sexy
Touching
What an odd little book! Every time I thought I ‘had it figured out,’ the focus flipped , and I was forced to rethink my premis.
This book, which started out on a frolic tone, ended up quite serious.
I’ll be thinking -and rethinking- about it for quite a while.
September 10, 2018
Jak się cieszę że przebrnęłam przez tą książkę i nie będę musiała jej więcej ruszać. Autor ma najwyraźniej duże problemy ze sobą. Liczyłam że będzie dobrą letnią książką do pociągu... yhh, to był zły wybór
July 13, 2024
Hilarious. Insightful. Unique characters that are relatable yet totally weird and a lovely ending. Definitely want to read more by him!
March 20, 2007
As I clicked the box just now, indicating that I'd be willing to sell/swap my copy, I actually thought - will someone please take this off my hands?
I was unequivocally disappointed in this book & this story. I thought the concept of the story, an examination of several characters who are all very different and interesting, all living in this "mythic Manhattan apartment building", was a great start. But the execution couldn't have been done more poorly. I read in another reader's review that each chapter felt like it was "born of the sort of exercise you’d be assigned in a beginning creative writing class" and I couldn't agree more. The details of the story and the writing itself was ridiculously trite and uncreative. Where do I begin, b/c there are so many examples to name... Are we really supposed to believe that each of two of the main characters eat at only one restaurant (Flat Michael's & Duranigan's) every weeknight, every single week? The server at Flat Michael's, the perpetually smiling, short & stout man named Juan who has trouble pronouncing certain English words, happens to be the only server to any of the characters in this story? The only bar that any character in this story ever frequented was Minotaur's? In NYC of all places? They all just happen to be friends and/or former pleasures of Patrick Rigg? how ridiculously convenient. And after reading practically an entire chapter about the acrid "smell" of evil emanating from Patrick, in the following chapter Schickler gratuitously throws in the sentence about the nurses at the hospital immediately liking James because "perhaps they could see, or even emell, the traces of passion on him..."????? Are you kidding me? UGH. (and what's sad is that there are so many more examples to name, but I think you get the point.) Please Mr. Schickler, give me a break and try not to make every detail have to apply to at least two of your characters. Try to invent a few more restaurants and bars your characters might patron. And for god's sake give these people some semblance of normalcy via the form of MULTIPLE friends, not just the group of mismatched characters in each of your chapters. It's practically insulting to your readers.
I do recognize that this was Schickler's attempt at allowing all of these characters to enter into eachother's lives, but in so doing he made each of the characters so completely one-dimensional, I couldn't help but close the book in annoyance. He completely missed the mark on this one.
Before reading some of the other reviews on goodreads, I hadn't thought of each of these chapters as a set of short stories. And after giving that some thought, that's the only tiny bit of praise I can think to give this book and this author. Looking at each chapter by itself, I can see how some of them could succeed on their own. If that's the case, perhaps this book should have been labeled as such - a collection of short stories, and Schickler should have avoided altogether his whole attempt to intertwine the lives of all the characters.
I can see this as a beach read for a reader not interested in having to think too hard, but besides that it's not much more than a waste of time. I almost gave up on finishing this book twice, but was rooting hopefully for Schickler, that his writing style may get better as the book progressed, but that turned out to be a disappointment as well.
I was unequivocally disappointed in this book & this story. I thought the concept of the story, an examination of several characters who are all very different and interesting, all living in this "mythic Manhattan apartment building", was a great start. But the execution couldn't have been done more poorly. I read in another reader's review that each chapter felt like it was "born of the sort of exercise you’d be assigned in a beginning creative writing class" and I couldn't agree more. The details of the story and the writing itself was ridiculously trite and uncreative. Where do I begin, b/c there are so many examples to name... Are we really supposed to believe that each of two of the main characters eat at only one restaurant (Flat Michael's & Duranigan's) every weeknight, every single week? The server at Flat Michael's, the perpetually smiling, short & stout man named Juan who has trouble pronouncing certain English words, happens to be the only server to any of the characters in this story? The only bar that any character in this story ever frequented was Minotaur's? In NYC of all places? They all just happen to be friends and/or former pleasures of Patrick Rigg? how ridiculously convenient. And after reading practically an entire chapter about the acrid "smell" of evil emanating from Patrick, in the following chapter Schickler gratuitously throws in the sentence about the nurses at the hospital immediately liking James because "perhaps they could see, or even emell, the traces of passion on him..."????? Are you kidding me? UGH. (and what's sad is that there are so many more examples to name, but I think you get the point.) Please Mr. Schickler, give me a break and try not to make every detail have to apply to at least two of your characters. Try to invent a few more restaurants and bars your characters might patron. And for god's sake give these people some semblance of normalcy via the form of MULTIPLE friends, not just the group of mismatched characters in each of your chapters. It's practically insulting to your readers.
I do recognize that this was Schickler's attempt at allowing all of these characters to enter into eachother's lives, but in so doing he made each of the characters so completely one-dimensional, I couldn't help but close the book in annoyance. He completely missed the mark on this one.
Before reading some of the other reviews on goodreads, I hadn't thought of each of these chapters as a set of short stories. And after giving that some thought, that's the only tiny bit of praise I can think to give this book and this author. Looking at each chapter by itself, I can see how some of them could succeed on their own. If that's the case, perhaps this book should have been labeled as such - a collection of short stories, and Schickler should have avoided altogether his whole attempt to intertwine the lives of all the characters.
I can see this as a beach read for a reader not interested in having to think too hard, but besides that it's not much more than a waste of time. I almost gave up on finishing this book twice, but was rooting hopefully for Schickler, that his writing style may get better as the book progressed, but that turned out to be a disappointment as well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 26, 2011
Read this for a book club and did not like it. I'm very glad I didn't spend any money on it. Thank you to the Minutemen Library Network in general and the lovely Cambridge Public Library in particular (incidentally, the Cambridge Library was named the “Single Most Beautiful Building” built in the metropolitan Boston area in the past 10 years by the Boston Society of Architects)!
I liked the idea of stringing together vignettes of interconnected lives. But all the characters were so awful, starting with Checkers, the super obnoxious jerk, and Donna, the seemingly normal and independent woman who, it turns out, secretly wanted a super obnoxious jerk to push her around. I couldn't stop cringing at their story. Then followed a string of women who exhibited more and more inexplicable behavior. You know a book is warping your brain when, upon reading a story about a 19-year-old Nicole half-proposing and half getting her parents to arrange a marriage between her and her 31-year-old high school teacher, you applaud that, at last, here is a woman who exercises any sort of control over her life.
Ugh.
The ending was also very abrupt and forced. Dislike!
I liked the idea of stringing together vignettes of interconnected lives. But all the characters were so awful, starting with Checkers, the super obnoxious jerk, and Donna, the seemingly normal and independent woman who, it turns out, secretly wanted a super obnoxious jerk to push her around. I couldn't stop cringing at their story. Then followed a string of women who exhibited more and more inexplicable behavior. You know a book is warping your brain when, upon reading a story about a 19-year-old Nicole half-proposing and half getting her parents to arrange a marriage between her and her 31-year-old high school teacher, you applaud that, at last, here is a woman who exercises any sort of control over her life.
Ugh.
The ending was also very abrupt and forced. Dislike!
October 31, 2010
My perception of this book changed considerably from beginning to end. I was initially swept into the book because the first couple of stories are so charming. The one about the bath almost had me in tear at the end of it.
But then it veered off into the territory of Patrick the stockbroker and that was not nearly as interesting. It felt as if the author really wanted to write a novel about Patrick, but instead wrote a couple short stories about him or about the people in his life and then published those along with a couple other stories that are only very loosely connected to the Patrick ones (by the apartment building or the wonderful restaurant called Flat Michael's where the entree choices are only a single word such as Squid, Noodles, Eel, Boar).
I think Schlicker has a real talent for writing and I would like to see more short stories by him NOT about Patrick.
But then it veered off into the territory of Patrick the stockbroker and that was not nearly as interesting. It felt as if the author really wanted to write a novel about Patrick, but instead wrote a couple short stories about him or about the people in his life and then published those along with a couple other stories that are only very loosely connected to the Patrick ones (by the apartment building or the wonderful restaurant called Flat Michael's where the entree choices are only a single word such as Squid, Noodles, Eel, Boar).
I think Schlicker has a real talent for writing and I would like to see more short stories by him NOT about Patrick.
September 4, 2011
David Schickler does not get women and his female characters made no sense to me at all. Granted, I'm not your typical female. But I don't know any woman that would behave like these female characters, except maybe Nicole, but her parents? No way! Then there's Donna who really pissed me off.
The format threw me at first. A series of short stories, some of them stand completely on their own just fine which I kinda like, but I wasn't prepared for it. In the end they all link together, some a lot, some just a little, one not very much at all (the bath one).
I'm stuck between a 2 and a 3 star rating and since I'm in a good mood it gets 3.
The format threw me at first. A series of short stories, some of them stand completely on their own just fine which I kinda like, but I wasn't prepared for it. In the end they all link together, some a lot, some just a little, one not very much at all (the bath one).
I'm stuck between a 2 and a 3 star rating and since I'm in a good mood it gets 3.
June 11, 2012
I love David Schickler's New York and want to live in the fictional building around which these stories take place. It's a story collection disguised as a novel, and it contains "The Smoker", which is one of my all-time favorites (read it via The New Yorker here: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2000...). If you like Wes Anderson and/or Woody Allen peppered with magical realism and urban ennui, then you'll love this book. If not, I think you'll enjoy it anyway.
January 25, 2008
Kissing in Manhattan contains an intriguing cast of quirky characters, which Schickler weaves together through a collection of short stories. Some of the stories are really amazing pieces of work ("Jacob's Bath" and "The Smoker" are the best of the bunch), but unfortunately, his writing is a bit uneven and the great qualities don't carry through the entire book. There were some points where I couldn't put down the book, but by the end I was ready for it to be done.
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