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Up in the Old Hotel (Vintage Classics) [Paperback]

Joseph Mitchell (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
RRP: £11.99
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Book Description

Publication Date: 5 July 2012 | Series: Vintage Classics

'The master of a journalistic style long vanished - urbane, lucid, courteous... A masterpiece of observation and storytelling' Ian McEwan

Mitchell is the laureate of old New York. The hidden corners of the city and the people who lived there are his subject. He captured the waterfront rooming-houses , nickel-a-drink saloons, all-night restaurants, the 'visionaries, obsessives, imposters, fanatics, lost souls, the end-is-near street preachers, old Gypsy Kings and old Gypsy Queens, and out-and-out freak-show freaks.' Mitchell's trademark curiosity, respect and graveyard humour fuel these magical essays.

Written between 1943 and 1965, Up in the Old Hotel is the complete collection of Joseph Mitchell 's New Yorker journalism and includes McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr Flood, The Bottom of the Harbour and Joe Gould's Secret.

'Joseph Mitchell is buried treasure' Salman Rushdie

Frequently Bought Together

Up in the Old Hotel (Vintage Classics) + My Ears are Bent (Vintage) + Pulphead: Notes from the Other Side of America
Price For All Three: £23.15

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Product details

  • Paperback: 736 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics (5 July 2012)
  • Language: Unknown
  • ISBN-10: 009956159X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099561590
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 3.7 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 30,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Joseph Mitchell Page
Joseph Mitchell
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Product Description

Review

This is a book about New York as it was a long time ago. Mitchell is interested in the texture of the city. He loves the cops and bums and old Italian restaurants. After a while you really feel engrained in the place yourself (William Leith Evening Standard )

Swift, razor-sharp characterisation, narrative suspense and the sparest, yet most penetrating description (Evening Standard )

One of the greatest journalists America has produced (Times Literary Supplement )

What James Joyce might have written had he gone into journalism (Newsweek )

A poet of the waterfront and a writer of surpassing tales that captured the unsung and unconventional life of New York and its denizens (Independent )

Book Description

'Mitchell bottled and preserved more of the soul of New York than any man before or since; Up in the Old Hotel is required reading for anyone who wants to hear the lost voices of the city' Tim Adams, Observer
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4.9 out of 5 stars
13 reviews
4.9 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant fascinating look at New York City 28 July 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Joseph Mitchell writes and I become the wiser. His first story on McSorley's Irish Pub prompted my visit to same last week when I visited NY. The visit made me pick up Mitchell's book and read it all over again. Every story is worthwhile despite subjects that would, at first, seem uninteresting. His profile of Joe Gould was one of the best pieces of non-fiction writing I can recall. If only a dozen guys in the world could write this way about real people.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best non-fiction writers of the 20th Century 21 May 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Mitchell might've been a genius. This is an incredible book filled with personalities and observations of the human condition that are simply unforgettable. His depictions of people and places are deeply felt, and New York is as alive as it ever was. A true classic. Astoundingly good.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A multiple re-read 11 May 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Unless you have an extraordinarily adept system of tracking the books you've lent to friends (or friends far more diligent than mine) you should strongly consider buying two copies. I lent my hardcover to a friend, and mourn it. I will lend it no more, having made the same mistake with a subsequent softcover. This is a book into which you can escape. It is alternately hiliarious, troubling, deeply sad. You can pick it up and read one piece or go through it cover to cover. Mitchell was a genius. Brilliant non-fiction writers like John McPhee and Tracy Kidder had their way paved for them by Mitchell... wanna see courage in print? Here it is.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Up with the Great Writers
Joseph Mitchell wrote for the great 'New Yorker' magazine, for a peroid of over thirty years. This book contains long essays written both pre and post World War Two. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. James G. Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars New York Stories
Joe Mitchell had a great job.
He went to his office every day; sometimes he wrote something, sometimes he did some editing, attended a meeting or two. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Tiernan Henry
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
The Chicago Sun-Times reviews this work thus:-

"A legendary figure.....Mitchell may indeed be the best writer in America.... Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2008 by DOPPLEGANGER
5.0 out of 5 stars New York through the eyes and ears of a remarkable reporter
Mitchell was a fabled New Yorker correspondent from the early 1930s until his death sixty years later, and his essays evoke New York and the people living on the margins of the... Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2006 by Mike D
5.0 out of 5 stars A humorous collection of stories about every day people.
Up in the Old Hotel is a collection of humorous stories about everyday people. I would highly reccomend it to anyone. Many of the stories had me laughing out loud. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars Desert-Island Books
This is one of my all-time favorites - even non-New Yorkers will be engrossed. A loving, lyrical, touching and humorous description of a New York that died long before I was born -... Read more
Published on 3 Feb 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous
While strolling in Soho, a friend dragged me by the ear into a small bookshop, bought this book for me and told me I had to read it. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars A collection worthy of reading over and over
Joe Mitchell was a New Yorker Magazine original, and in this collection representing three decades of authorship, you will find him at his very best. Read more
Published on 14 Nov 1997
5.0 out of 5 stars Magical! Mitchell weaves tapestries with words!!!
Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel is by far the best book that I have read by an Amerian writer. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 1997
5.0 out of 5 stars Longing for home
I think that any book that can make you truly long to be back in a place that you miss with all your heart is the mark of a true classic. Read more
Published on 28 July 1997
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