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The City in the Mist
The City in the Mist is New York City, and George W.S. Trow, with the verbal wizardry and legerdemain he is known for, gives us that cit, old and new, old in new. He gives us many generations of New York society, building up and crumbling down. This is a novel, but it is also a true portrait of an endlessly fascinating culture.
214 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1984
About the author
George W.S. Trow
11 books16 followersGeorge W. S. Trow lives in Columbia Country, New York and Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 13, 2013
Three stars is a serious compromise on this -- taken as a novel, altogether, it really probably deserves no more than 2 stars, but the writing itself, as one would expect with Trow, is so graceful and beautiful, often breathtakingly so, that I feel it deserves more, even while also feeling disappointed that Trow's ambition doesn't live up to his skill with words.
A common mantra in Trow's equally poetic non-fiction is "But don't let me get grand with you..." Unfortunately, this attitude seems to carry through into this slim volume. I admire writers who excel in miniatures and choose to stick with creating perfect short work, but Trow sets up a story that wants to be a larger, expansive work (about two related families of different classes in New York City both at the turn of the 20th Century and then again in the 1980s), and then relegates it to a series of exquisite, discrete chapters that are individually impressive (to varied extents), each one feeling polished to an amazing glow, but altogether not adding up to a satisfying complete work -- a sudden magic realist ending is deeply moving, but not quite enough to mask that he is using some skilled authorial slight-of-hand as misdirection from the lack of an an actual conclusion to the book.
And, as usual with Trow, while he has the eye of a journalist, the mind of a philosopher, and the pen of a poet (and all of them fine), he is rarely able to be successful in all three areas at the same time. Well, who can, right? The problem is, Trow sets up situations where he must succeed in all these areas, and then can't quite make it.
That said, some of the individual sections, taken as such, are some of Trow's finest work -- and I think Chapter 3 is his MASTERPIECE, honestly (I've read it aloud twice to myself just to feel its beauty on my tongue) -- which means it is worth reading.
The book is long out of print, but was easily found used online -- in my case for just a penny plus shipping (!). If found at a reasonable price it should be grabbed and enjoyed. Just don't expect something too grand.
A common mantra in Trow's equally poetic non-fiction is "But don't let me get grand with you..." Unfortunately, this attitude seems to carry through into this slim volume. I admire writers who excel in miniatures and choose to stick with creating perfect short work, but Trow sets up a story that wants to be a larger, expansive work (about two related families of different classes in New York City both at the turn of the 20th Century and then again in the 1980s), and then relegates it to a series of exquisite, discrete chapters that are individually impressive (to varied extents), each one feeling polished to an amazing glow, but altogether not adding up to a satisfying complete work -- a sudden magic realist ending is deeply moving, but not quite enough to mask that he is using some skilled authorial slight-of-hand as misdirection from the lack of an an actual conclusion to the book.
And, as usual with Trow, while he has the eye of a journalist, the mind of a philosopher, and the pen of a poet (and all of them fine), he is rarely able to be successful in all three areas at the same time. Well, who can, right? The problem is, Trow sets up situations where he must succeed in all these areas, and then can't quite make it.
That said, some of the individual sections, taken as such, are some of Trow's finest work -- and I think Chapter 3 is his MASTERPIECE, honestly (I've read it aloud twice to myself just to feel its beauty on my tongue) -- which means it is worth reading.
The book is long out of print, but was easily found used online -- in my case for just a penny plus shipping (!). If found at a reasonable price it should be grabbed and enjoyed. Just don't expect something too grand.
June 19, 2026
the author's style kept me wrapped in mist from time to time but i enjoyed the journey.
July 4, 2016
Experimental writing may have had fair moments with Brian W. Aldiss (I've still got a lot to devour), but it's forms could be as varied as is conceivable. The City in the Mist is schizophrenia of the prosaically deranged kind - in an enthralling way. Unfolding the family of a crime boss by bloodlines as it slowly fizzes out as peacefully as it came, all the ins and outs involved -- abstract-wise
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews