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josephinecatherine's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
3.5
This was not bad. I appreciate the style and content and my goodness there were some expert moments (peek the chapter on synagogues). However, I do not think appreciation is akin to enjoyment in this case.
I mean this with no ill intent and I understand Brett is understanding of the sort of character (of herself) whose perspective she writes from. Unfortunately, I find her quite unlikeable. It had a Woody Allen vibe which I don’t think is my target audience. Again - not bad, just a bit too much to ‘enjoy’.
Sections of this I found interesting and even enticing. The rest was just mediocre to me.
I mean this with no ill intent and I understand Brett is understanding of the sort of character (of herself) whose perspective she writes from. Unfortunately, I find her quite unlikeable. It had a Woody Allen vibe which I don’t think is my target audience. Again - not bad, just a bit too much to ‘enjoy’.
Sections of this I found interesting and even enticing. The rest was just mediocre to me.
catliffe's review
2.0
I’m pretty sure I bought this book because it had New York in the title and I really like New York. The book is supposed to be about the author and her life in the city. Which I suppose it was but what I wanted was to be transported back to the dirty and bustling streets of New York. What I got was sentences that went on and just felt like fillers.
She repeatedly tells us that she has lived in New York for 25 years, is terrible with directions and that her parents were survivors of Nazi Germany. I enjoyed her writings about how her parents were violently anti-religious due to the horrors they witnessed - I just didn’t need to hear it repeated 98 times. She also made her Dad sound a little pervy and seemed to find it amusing. I did not love this book.
She repeatedly tells us that she has lived in New York for 25 years, is terrible with directions and that her parents were survivors of Nazi Germany. I enjoyed her writings about how her parents were violently anti-religious due to the horrors they witnessed - I just didn’t need to hear it repeated 98 times. She also made her Dad sound a little pervy and seemed to find it amusing. I did not love this book.
belinda's review
4.0
A few years ago, I went to a session at the Wheeler Centre where Lily Brett was reading from her book Lola Bensky. She was wonderful – funny, clever, entertaining – and every since then I have had a massive girl crush on Lily Brett. I downloaded her latest, Only in New York, as soon as I found out about its existence but waited until last week to read it. The anticipation of the pleasure it was going to bring me was almost as pleasurable as reading the book itself…but not quite!
In Only in New York, Brett shares a series of vignettes about her life in New York: the walks she takes, the people she meets and the places she visits and loves. In the process, Brett skillfully weaves in the New York of the past, the Melbourne of her childhood and the Poland of her Jewish parents. She discusses issue of great tragedy and great humour, often in the same vignette, and through her featherlight touch the Holocaust is given a her own individual perspective as one of the first babies born to not one but two Holocaust survivors.
This description makes the book sound sad but it is in fact very funny; her wry observations identify the basic humour of humanity and the particular humanity of the type of events that happen only in New York.
She mentioned the book reading I went to in her book, which I think means we are now best friends. Only in New York is a lovely book, four stars.
In Only in New York, Brett shares a series of vignettes about her life in New York: the walks she takes, the people she meets and the places she visits and loves. In the process, Brett skillfully weaves in the New York of the past, the Melbourne of her childhood and the Poland of her Jewish parents. She discusses issue of great tragedy and great humour, often in the same vignette, and through her featherlight touch the Holocaust is given a her own individual perspective as one of the first babies born to not one but two Holocaust survivors.
This description makes the book sound sad but it is in fact very funny; her wry observations identify the basic humour of humanity and the particular humanity of the type of events that happen only in New York.
She mentioned the book reading I went to in her book, which I think means we are now best friends. Only in New York is a lovely book, four stars.
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