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We finally got around to reading the profile of fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld in the New Yorker. Certainly, he's got his quirks. But we liked learning about what Lagerfeld, who reads in English, French, German, and Italian, thought about one famous American writer:
“For me, the perfect writing is E. B. White—that’s how one should write English. The sound, the language, what it evokes for me. I see New York with the eyes of his book about New York."Lagerfeld must be referring to White's Here is New York. He also likes Emily Dickinson - who knew? Lagerfeld himself has a imprint at a publishing house, focusing mainly on photography and art, but has published a diet book that tells you how he lost 92 pounds so he could wear skinny suits. C'est la vie!
A recent series of essays about New York that we enjoyed is Colson Whitehead's The Colossus of New York. What are some books about New York that you like?
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This piece reminded me of Pataki's infamous gaffe during Hillary's first Senate run, where Mrs. Clinton professed admiration for the late, great E.B. White and Pataki sneered and hilariously showed his ignorance of the writer. What a tool!
Butterfield 8 by John O'Hara
Up In The Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell
Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" has many great New York poems
"Low Life," by Luc Sante and "Time and Again," by Jack Finney.
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan by Phillip Lopate
There's always GOTHAM, by Burrows and Wallace, and THE GREAT GATSBY.
I can understand why Lagerfeld likes White and Dickinson: these are two artists who wrote simple, direct, and powerful English. They expressed in a few dozen words -- nearly all of one or two syllables -- what lesser writers needed a volume or two to cover, and cover badly.
Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
The Alienist - Caleb Carr
La Cote Basque - Truman Capote
I second Low Life - Luc Sante and Up in the Old Hotel - Joseph Mitchell
I just finished New York Streetscapes: Tales of Manhattan's Significant Buildings and Landmarks by Christopher Gray. It's not so much about architecture as the tales of New York's movers and shakers.
Kevin Baker's three book cycle on New York: Dreamland (Coney Island), Paradise Alley (Manhattan, Civil War), and Striver's Row (Harlem, 1940s).
as noted above, Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale" is quintessential as is Pete Hamill's "Forver" and "Downtown".
Salinger.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning" by Jonathan Mahler. It's about 1977, a really interesting year in NYC history. The book does what Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam" tried to do, and it does it much better, and with baseball as a vehicle for talking about culture, politics, and everything else.
A masterful essay is "The Rains of New York," by Albert Camus. If I recall, someone typed it up and posted it somewhere so it is easily found via search engine.
"Gangs of New York" by Herbert Asbury
"The New York Chronology" by James Trager
"Time and Again" by Jack Finney, as noted above.
"The Epic of New York City" by Edward Robb Ellis