A fun stocking-stuffer or distracting waiting room read.
A collection of whimsical stories based in—but not bound to—reality.
The book purports to be stories “collected and selected” by the author, with almost all of the stories written by ostensibly fictional authors. Most chapters appear to be efforts to delve deeper into news stories, but with no explanation or other container provided, it’s difficult to determine if this is truly the case. Of the 18 stories in this collection, a handful stand out: “Farmer’s Radio Picks Up Broadcast from Other World,” about cows who enjoy animal rights-oriented broadcasts from another planet; “Stocks Decline, So Does Broker,” about a town attempting to capitalize on failed suicide attempts; and the comparatively long “Airliner’s Pilot and Co-Pilot Pass Out,” where an international flight is saved by an unlikely young hero. The supposed authors of the stories are reporters, book reviewers, hack screenwriters, novelists and theater critics, with only the last story (a letter to the government, as yet unanswered, suggesting the re-introduction of WWII PT boats to deal with the Somali pirate problem) clearly penned by Doolittle. All the narrators share a quirky perspective on the stuff of day-to-day life: romance, work, rejection, death, art and the progression of time. Unfortunately, rather than deepening our understanding of the headline-style titles, each chapter is a directionless meandering through the details with confusing efforts at humor spiced into the mix. Many stories start out strong, but all inevitably fall flat, failing to pay off or find closure in a dramatically satisfying way. Doolittle’s unusual, playful voice opens up possibilities in the emotionless world of news writing, but each fictional author sounds the same, and each story dribbles to an end rather than coming to a climax. Dissatisfying at best and maddeningly confusing at worst, Doolittle’s sense of fun nevertheless wins his book some sympathy.
A fun stocking-stuffer or distracting waiting room read.Pub Date: June 29, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4535-0488-8
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.
A revealing biography of the fabled Manhattan hotel, in which generations of artists and writers found a haven.
Turn-of-the century New York did not lack either hotels or apartment buildings, writes Tippins (February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof In Wartime America, 2005). But the Chelsea Hotel, from its very inception, was different. Architect Philip Hubert intended the elegantly designed Chelsea Association Building to reflect the utopian ideals of Charles Fourier, offering every amenity conducive to cooperative living: public spaces and gardens, a dining room, artists’ studios, and 80 apartments suitable for an economically diverse population of single workers, young couples, small families and wealthy residents who otherwise might choose to live in a private brownstone. Hubert especially wanted to attract creative types and made sure the building’s walls were extra thick so that each apartment was quiet enough for concentration. William Dean Howells, Edgar Lee Masters and artist John Sloan were early residents. Their friends (Mark Twain, for one) greeted one another in eight-foot-wide hallways intended for conversations. In its early years, the Chelsea quickly became legendary. By the 1930s, though, financial straits resulted in a “down-at-heel, bohemian atmosphere.” Later, with hard-drinking residents like Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan, the ambience could be raucous. Arthur Miller scorned his free-wheeling, drug-taking, boozy neighbors, admitting, though, that the “great advantage” to living there “was that no one gave a damn what anyone else chose to do sexually.” No one passed judgment on creativity, either. But the art was not what made the Chelsea famous; its residents did. Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Phil Ochs and Sid Vicious are only a few of the figures populating this entertaining book.
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-618-72634-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.
Photographer and author Stanton returns with a companion volume to Humans of New York (2013), this one with similarly affecting photographs of New Yorkers but also with some tales from his subjects’ mouths.
Readers of the first volume—and followers of the related site on Facebook and elsewhere—will feel immediately at home. The author has continued to photograph the human zoo: folks out in the streets and in the parks, in moods ranging from parade-happy to deep despair. He includes one running feature—“Today in Microfashion,” which shows images of little children dressed up in various arresting ways. He also provides some juxtapositions, images and/or stories that are related somehow. These range from surprising to forced to barely tolerable. One shows a man with a cat on his head and a woman with a large flowered headpiece, another a construction worker proud of his body and, on the facing page, a man in a wheelchair. The emotions course along the entire continuum of human passion: love, broken love, elation, depression, playfulness, argumentativeness, madness, arrogance, humility, pride, frustration, and confusion. We see varieties of the human costume, as well, from formalwear to homeless-wear. A few celebrities appear, President Barack Obama among them. The “stories” range from single-sentence comments and quips and complaints to more lengthy tales (none longer than a couple of pages). People talk about abusive parents, exes, struggles to succeed, addiction and recovery, dramatic failures, and lifelong happiness. Some deliver minirants (a neuroscientist is especially curmudgeonly), and the children often provide the most (often unintended) humor. One little boy with a fishing pole talks about a monster fish. Toward the end, the images seem to lead us toward hope. But then…a final photograph turns the light out once again.
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-05890-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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