The New Yorkers: A Novel

by Cathleen Schine

Hardcover, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2007), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 304 pages

Description

The best-selling author of The Love Letter enchants readers again with a sweet and funny comedy of mannerscomplete with dogs. As anyone who has walked a dog in any city knows, dogs bring people together who would otherwise never meet. On one humble, rent-controlled block of Upper East Side Manhattan, neighbors become neighborly because of their dogs, and the canines are cupids for their sometimes lonely, often eccentric, and hopelessly romantic humans. Like Polly and Everett, who briefly distract each other from heartache - until Everett realizes he is more in love with Howdy, Polly's dog, than with Polly. And Jody, who ponders a marriage proposal from Simon while walking her dog, Beatrice. Simon doesn't have a dog, but he courts Jody by waiting along Beatrice's walking path and dining at the corner Korean restaurant that allows dogs. George (Polly's sister) is looking for life direction, not love, and Howdy (Polly's dog) leads him right to it. Doris hates dogsuntil she gets one of her own.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bearette24

This was a sweet story, simply told, about a group of New Yorkers and how they interact and affect one another: Jody, a cheerful woman in her late 30s who should be played by Meg Ryan in the movie version; Jamie, a charming gay restaurateur; Everett, an aloof but well-meaning bachelor; Simon, a

social worker whose heart is in Virginia; Polly, a young woman with an especially commanding voice; and George, Polly's feckless but lovable brother. The book follows these characters' emotional growth and relationships over the course of a year.

I enjoyed this book immensely, despite its slow pace. And it didn't really matter, because it's the kind of novel you want to savor. I was sorry when it ended.

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LibraryThing member subbobmail

I am a sucker for Cathleen Schine, just as I am a sucker for Laurie Colwin. Both writers like to weave stories of love and courtship and manners in contemporary New York, and each makes New York sound like delightful places to live. Now, I have lived in Manhattan. I do not want to go back there

unless I'm on vacation. But I would gladly live in the imaginary, idealized Manhattan we are given by The New Yorkers, the latest from Ms. Schine.
The action involves various people of various ages and temperaments looking for love and contentment on the same city block. Also, there are dogs -- the pets who help these people meet and get to know each other. This novel has a structure I always enjoy; it's a roundelay. We flit from one quirky person to another in a great round, coming back to every character in turn every few pages, just to see how they are doing. Schine's people are diverting, if not always three-dimensional, and I enjoyed their company.
The whole thing would make a good Nora Ephron movie...if Nora Ephron made good movies anymore. (I'm sorry, but ever since You've Got Mail, she has a lot for which to answer.)

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LibraryThing member Booklette

A fun read about the interesting people living on a Manhattan street.

LibraryThing member jjenn1960

The dogs in this book were more interesting than their owners. The human characters were shallow and sel-absorbed. It was hard for me to believe that they could exit their ennui long enough to find someone to date.

LibraryThing member framberg

I found this book delightful. Schine does a great job of showing the impact we have on those around us - intentionally or not. The humans in this novel are well-realized, complicated characters, and their relationships with the dogs in their lives shows them at their most human. The gentle pace of

the plot felt very real to me - it flows in just the surprising ways that life does. I found the moments of misunderstanding, missed chances, and misinterpretations especially powerful, poignant, and honest.

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LibraryThing member phlegmmy

In The New Yorkers, Cathleen Shine has written a set of characters that are at once very familiar, like the friends and family that we have in our own lives. Not to mention the dogs, that are the glue that holds these people together. We meet several neighbors from a block in Manhattan and their

canine companions and watch as their lives slowly transform and how the barriers between them are broken through the simple addition of dogs into their lives. This book was especially appealing to me as a dog lover, as Shine shows us the power that somehow dogs have to make us better people, to bring us closer together and to ultimately break our hearts.

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LibraryThing member MarianV

The "New Yorkers" is a story about a group of people who live in New York City, but it is a story that could take place anywhere . Anywhere, that is, where a group of people who love dogs meet each other, and each other's pets in a neighborhood where pets are welcome and people are friendly. This

is the New York I remember from watching "Seinfeld" and the characters - at least the people- remind me of Seinfeld's people. I enjoyed this book as a "comfort read", entertaining, interesting characters, a plot that develops from everyday encounters and, of course, the dogs, each with his/her own personality. The action covers a year, and a bit of romance is involved. At the end, we are treated to an epilogue that ties up all loose ends. Like the TV show that purports to be about "nothing" this book is about a very small slice of life -- "nothing" and at the same time everything.

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LibraryThing member picklechic

I was looking forward to reading The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine. It had a cute dog pictured on the cover and the blurb on the back sounded like it would be interesting: a story about people living on a single block in NY and their dogs. It was a good idea for a book, however there was not

enough to the story to make it entertaining. The story was very meandering, slow, and was very hard to follow with little "point". There were very few likable characters, except for the dogs! I did not like the way the book resolved. The story was dragged out so long it didn't make sense for it to have such a neat, tidy ending. Overall, I was very disappointed and would not recommend this book.

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LibraryThing member sarita1119

I read this book but it just didn't seem to keep me captivated. The idea was good, but it needed more character development. I thought it would appeal to me as an animal lover and owner of a dog, but not so much.

LibraryThing member alana_leigh

Let's face it, we know what the marketing team was thinking here. Let's put an adorable dog on the cover and this book will sell itself. I'm afraid I'll have to agree with most of the reviewers here: there's not much going for this book beyond that dog on the cover. You might find yourself swayed

if you're a real dog-lover, but if that's the case, the time you would spend reading this book should simply be spent with an actual dog. I didn't come away with any great selections from the book that I might point to as being unique and delightful, and perhaps that's the worst crime of all -- The New Yorkers is simply not memorable. Alas.

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LibraryThing member debnance

People meet and fall in love via their dogs in this book of light fiction. Friends pointed me toward this book after I complained about the hours I’ve spent this summer with Al Qaeda and fundamental extremists and the poor of sub-Sahara Africa and the test-weary world of disadvantaged New Jersey

schools. There is nothing that lingers in your bones after reading this book, nothing that leads you toward writing editorials to the Times. Simple little stories of relationships combined with the steady love of loyal dogs.

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LibraryThing member alanna1122

I really enjoyed this book.

The last Schine book I read was She Is Me and I was so disappointed it took me a very long time to take this one off the shelf and gave it a try. I am really glad that I decided to give it a whirl.

I think it is a charming book - the characters are complex and well drawn.

I was surprised by the sheer number of characters that we, as readers, follow - but Schine does a nice job of giving them all sufficient time to have their stories unfold and interweaving the storylines in a believable fashion.

The book is illustrated throughout with darling line drawings of dogs. I enjoyed them very much and I thought they added a touch of whimsy that, for me, really affected the tone of the novel in a positive way.

Years and years ago, Schine was brought to my attention with her book The Evolution of Jane - I loved it and have sought out her novels ever since. None have measured up for me until this one.

My faith is restored!

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LibraryThing member shelleyraec

A simple story of a handful of people and how their lives become entangled. I think a lack of personality from both the characters and the dogs failed to draw me in to the novel. A pleasant read however.

LibraryThing member kath8899

Lovely story of people interacting where they might not have - relationships developing unexpectedly, people supporting each other in the face of challenges, and people changing/growing perhaps because of interaction with other people. Love this author.

LibraryThing member BookConcierge

Audio book read by Nicole Roberts

Five apartment dwellers living in a quiet block near Central Park meet over their canine companions. Friendships develop, misunderstandings ensure, couples come together, drift apart and the members find new attachments.

This is a lovely, quick read – a Valentine

to New York City. The characters are charming and sometimes exasperating. The dogs are all loveable (even the one that bites). It’s a year in the life of these lonely people wherein they meet and connect over their beloved pooches. The book contains humor, pathos, irony and romance. What’s not to like?!

Nicole Roberts does a fine job narrating the audio book. She has good pacing and sufficient skill as a voice artist to differentiate the characters.

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LibraryThing member katiekrug

If you're not a dog person, this book probably won't hold much interest for you. (Also, what is wrong with you?) It follows about half a dozen residents of a nondescript block on the Upper West Side of Manhattan - human residents and canine ones. The dogs bring people together in unexpected ways

and their interactions help forge a community of sorts. The dog characters are wonderful, especially Beatrice, a white pit bull with a big heart and a worrywart of an owner. The humans are wonderfully drawn, too. From the self-described spinster at 40 to the just-dumped 26 year old and her underachieving brother to the newly-divorced man trying to figure out how to be alone in his 50s, Schine treats each of her characters with affection and - often- bemusement. Doris, the "antagonist" of the story, is especially well-done in all her self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

The New Yorkers is a love letter to the city, as well as a paean to the special way dogs have of bringing us out of ourselves and to each other.

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