The New Yorkers: A Novel - Hardcover

Schine, Cathleen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374221839 ISBN 13: 9780374221836

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

Synopsis

An enchanting comedy of manners (with dogs!) from one of our most treasured writers

 
Cathleen Schine’s brilliantly funny new novel revolves around one city block in Manhattan, a quiet little block near Central Park kept humble by rent control. Living on a street like this in New York with a dog is like living in a tiny village, one that has a rhythm all its own. Dogs bring people together unexpectedly, people who would otherwise never meet. And the dogs act as cupids for the quiet, struggling, sometimes lonely, eccentric people, the old and the young, male and female; the people who live on the block, who are, in their ways, romantics, as all New Yorkers secretly tend to be. Walking her dog, Beatrice, Jody falls under the spell of Everett’s bewitching smile. Everett begins to appreciate his postdivorce life only when he falls in love with Howdy, Polly’s puppy. Polly lives with her brother, George, and wants him to fall in love. George isn’t so much looking for a love life as for life direction, and Howdy leads him right to it. Doris hates the trash on her block, she hates the pee on her SUV’s large tires, and, above all, she hates dogs. That is, until she gets one of her own.

 

In The New Yorkers, as in life, canine companions compel their masters to go outside of themselves, to take part in the community they live in, to make friends, and, sometimes, to fall in love. And Schine returns to what she does best: crafting a compulsively readable, elegantly written novel that seduces in the way we were once seduced by The Love Letter, Schine’s beloved classic.

About this title

Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2007: You don't have to be a New Yorker (or a dog owner) to appreciate Cathleen Schine's snapshot of city living in The New Yorkers. Her omniscient narrator--a delightful amalgam of Nora Ephron and Truman Capote--tells the tale of friends and neighbors on a single Manhattan block that is at once charming and arresting in its attention to the rhythms, frustrations, and welcome surprises that come with the urban territory. This novel is full of humor and romance, and Schine's bright, insightful prose blooms on every page. --Anne Bartholomew

From the Back Cover

Past the hustle and bustle of midtown, sheltered from the squawks of taxis and tourists, lies a quiet little block near Central Park kept humble by rent control. Cathleen Schine's brilliantly funny new novel shows us how living on a street like this in New York with a dog is like living in a tiny village, one that has a rhythm all its own.

Walking her dog, Beatrice, Jody falls under the spell of Everett's bewitching smile. Everett begins to appreciate his post-divorce life only when he falls in love with Howdy, Polly's puppy. Polly lives with her brother, George, who isn't looking so much for a love life as for life direction, and Howdy leads him right to it. Doris hates the trash on her block, she hates the pee on her SUV's large tires, and, above all, she hates dogs. That is, until she gets one of her own.

In The New Yorkers, as in life, canine companions compel their masters to go outside of themselves, to take part in the community they live in, to make friends, and sometimes, to fall in love.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0374221839
• ISBN 13: 9780374221836
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304