The Subway Chronicles: Scenes from Life in New York - Softcover

Ken Wheaton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452287790 ISBN 13: 9780452287792

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2006

Synopsis

Some seven million people board the New York City subway every day, each one with a story to tell. The Subway Chronicles collects twenty-seven of the tales, dramas and comedies that unfold during the daily commute. From the “mole people” living in the subway tunnels, to the transit employees working behind the scenes, to the locals and tourists riding shoulder-to-shoulder in harmony, discord, or indifference, The Subway Chronicles offers a kaleidoscope of perspectives on this most public of spaces.

Prominent New York writers weigh in:

• Jonathan Lethem confesses his childhood subway sins

• Colson Whitehead offers mass-transit tips for newcomers to the city

• Francine Prose recalls the thrill and apprehension of riding alone as a teenage girl

• Calvin Trillin pokes fun at the classic New York tendency to be skeptical about everything

• Stan Fischler delights in memories of riding the open-air train cars to Coney Island as a boy

Equal parts hilarious, poignant, and heartbreaking, The Subway Chronicles is a journey into New York’s underground with some of today’s most loved writers.

About this title

About the Author

Jacquelin Cangro, founder of thesubwaychronicles.com, has had her work published in literary journals and is a monthly columnist for Learning Through History magazine. She recently completed her first novel.

Reviews

Here is a delightful collection of New York stories by veteran straphangers—both known and unknown—dedicated to that amazing underground network. Along with expected accounts of the unsavory run-ins with weirdoes and stink bombs during the usual subway commute (e.g., Daniels Parseliti's "Porno Man and I Versus the Feminist Avenger and Displaced Anger Man"), many of these authors offer poignant memories of riding the trains over the years, such as Jonathan Lethem's account of haunting the eponymous station in "Speak, Hoyt-Schermerhorn" as a white, liberal-middle-class kid immersed in a fringe area of crime and poverty. "Parnassus Underground" by Patrick Flynn recalls joyfully the meaty reading the author was able to accomplish during long workday commutes from the Bronx, before he moved and (to his literary despair) shortened his travel time. Robert Lanham's "Straphanger Doppelgänger" records the chilling encounter between two commuters of uncanny resemblance who have observed each other over a long period. Most gratifying are the historical details worked into many of the essays, such as the comparison between Russian and New York underground railroads as noted by Boris Fishman in "Metro Blues, or How I Came to America." This is a clever collection gathered by Cangro from her Web site, thesubwaychronicles.com. (Sept.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0452287790
• ISBN 13: 9780452287792
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Jacquelin Cangro