Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 90
 Journal of Liberal Serendipity. Try it now! April 19, 2007
B. Marold (Bethlehem, PA United States)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
`The New Yorker' is touted, especially by the publisher's advertising copy, as `the very best magazine in the country, and maybe the best magazine ever'. If there was ever a statement to raise the hackles of those who are disposed to criticize a publication, that is surely it. I happen to be someone who has read and liked the magazine for upwards of forty years. I even liked it before they added the Table of Contents, and I typically begin reading it from the back to the front, and often don't even get to the Table of Contents by the time the next issue arrives.
Since I don't live within easy commuting distance of New York City, I rarely bother with the `Goings on About Town', except for the thumbnail movie reviews in `Now Playing', as they will also be playing at my local multiplex. That leaves the reviews, the fiction, the poetry, the `in depth' articles, the cartoons, `The Talk of the Town', and the advertisements. It may be odd to cite the ads, but next to the cartoons, that was my favorite thing to read when I borrowed my uncle's copies to read as a teenager. And, I am certainly not the only one to be in that situation, as the Levenger Company claims great responses to their tiny marginal ads in `The New Yorker'.
Getting back to this `best magazine' claim, I find it difficult, especially with the great variety of magazines serving a great variety of purposes. How can any one say they are better than `Playboy', `National Geographic', `Natural History', `TV Guide', `Reader's Digest', or `Time'? Whenever I review a book, I always compare it to other books that address, or claim to address the same audience. I reconcile my usual practice with my devotion to this magazine and believe that it reduces to a matter of the quality of the writing. All magazines contain the written word, and I suggest that `The New Yorker' writing is as good or better than most.
Please note that the quality of the writing is NOT the same as the quality of the ideas about which the magazine's authors write! There is no question that the opinion of `The New Yorker' writers and editors is distinctly liberal, possibly as much as the best-known liberal opinion journals such as `The New Republic'. But `The New Yorker' is NOT representing itself as a journal of news (aside from its news of performance dates and times). It is an old style opinion journal harking back to the days of H. L. Mencken, `The Smart Set', and `The American Mercury'. While the magazine's agenda is liberal, its style is intellectual, not visceral. One is less likely to find the kind of informal fallacies in its articles that you will in the writing or speaking of many other commentators with a distinct agenda, including everyone from Bill O'Reilly on the right to James Carville on the left.
One of the best known aspects of the magazine is its distinctive style, which primarily involves not taking itself too seriously. In case you haven't noticed, the magazine's trademark cartoon character, Eustice Tilly, intently staring at a butterfly through a monocle, was adopted not to embody, but to poke fun at a certain Upper East Side, Central Park East hoity-toity attitude. The most concrete embodiment of this modestly urbane air is the writing style of the pieces in `The Talk of the Town'. While many different people have written them over the years, I swear the editors inject a serum into every new writer that inoculates them with the disposition to write that same low-key matter of fact tone I have read for the last 40 years. I have even gone so far as to write parodies of this style, which has been applied to virtually every subject under the sun.
This brings up what may be the most entertaining aspect of the magazine. It knows practically no bounds to the subjects it will cover in a given year. It has been known to devote a goodly number of columns to `The Sporting Scene', and it also dedicates a sizable amount of space to pieces of `investigative journalism', especially of U.S. affairs in the world by the likes of Seymour Hersh. But, it also carries many distinctive articles on food, horticulture, science, the arts in general, travel, history, and you name it! A steady diet of reading `The New Yorker' will never leave you without something interesting to inject into a conversation.
Then, of course, there are the cartoons. I confess, there are some cartoons to which I never do really get the point. But then, there are some, albeit very few, where the absence of a point is the point. Otherwise, one must be in fairly close touch with popular culture and current events to get many of the cartoons. But then, that's the fun of it, knowing you are `in the know' well enough to appreciate a reference to Keith Richard and ashes!
By far my favorite part of `The New Yorker' is the book reviews. I confess that I have probably confounded more than a few readers of my reviews by the roundabout style I copied from `The New Yorker' way with books. The very best thing about many of the reviews is that they will cover two or more books on the same subject in one review. Thus, not only do you hear which may be the better, but why, in comparison to a work which is doing the same thing. I do confess to a bit of frustration with the movie reviews. This is one place where the laid back style, rarely showing enthusiasm for anything, can be a bit annoying, but I will always trust that `The New Yorker' movie review will be a better reflection of my tastes than virtually any other review.
Unfortunately, I never read the fiction or the poetry, since Woody Allen stopped contributing material.
Not just for New Yorkers May 3, 2002
Matthew Vanhouten (Fort Lee, NJ USA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I originally wrote a review here after only subscribing to the New Yorker for 6 months. Now it's been 12 and I can report that the more I read it the more I get from it. I just renewed my subscription for 2 years. While I don't have any familiarity with the way the magazine had been edited prior to Remnick, word has it his approach is more news-driven than issues or cultural piece-driven. To some extent this is true, however there is still that certain, New Yorkerness about it that probes deeply into the current issue with attention to the human and cultural aspects of it. I read the New York Times for news. I read the New Yorker for context. Remnick's choices are also extraordinarily prescient. In many cases, the in-depth profiles the New Yorker does on people, places and situations tend to become leading stories in major dailies down the road. In this age of playing catch up with what's going on in the world and trying to read through spin and deceit, the New Yorker's lead-of-the-pack approach offers something akin to honesty. The thinking is that if they are out ahead with a story, they can't be spinning someone else's news. Some critize the New Yorker as a middle-brow publication. These critiques tend to come from the far left, where anything short of purist Marxism is frowned upon as being dilapidated drivel. The New Yorker is always articulate and much more global in its coverage than the namesake would suggest. Week after week the New Yorker churns out a beautiful and timely journal of the people, arts, events and lives we are all witness to. At the heavily discounted yearly subscription rate, this is money well spent.
As necessary as the air I breathe June 22, 2006
Karen Sampson Hudson (Reno, NV United States)
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
I encountered the New Yorker in my best friend's house when I was ten years old, becoming hooked from the first time I opened the magazine. Ever since I have been an enthusiastic, appreciative reader. I delight in the quality of the prose;I laugh uproariously at the deliciously witty cartoons; savor the poems; marvel at the creative covers and other artwork. Five stars plus plus plus!
Yes, as other amazon reviewers have pointed out, the quality of the magazine declined drastically during the Tina Brown era. Happily for all concerned, the New Yorker is back on track after that unfortunate detour.
Throughout its illustrious history, some critics have said that the magazine is too focused on New York City. While the events listings are invaluable to people living in the area, this best of all American magazines offers in-depth articles, rich humor, superb book, music, movie, dance, and art reviews aimed at a reading public all over the country. I would even expand that to say, all over the world.
If you have time only to read one weekly magazine, make it this superlative one. Since the day I first turned it pages, reading the New Yorker has been as necessary, and as life-giving, as the air I breathe.
For any age October 26, 2002
Caroline (Arlington, VA United States)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Over 10 years ago, my high school English teacher recommended that all of his students get a subscription to The New Yorker. He often xeroxed the fiction pieces for us to read, and was known for saying, "If you read this magazine cover to cover each week, you'll learn almost everything you need to know about what's going on in the world." Because I thought he was great, I got a subscription, and have never regretted it. For a few years I read only the fiction pieces and the poetry, and gradually moved towards the Talk of the Town, and beyond. I haven't lived in the New York area since high school, but each week when my New Yorker comes I gleefully pick it up and begin reading. First the poems, then the Talk of the Town, and then... who knows? I am never disappointed.
 Fascinating Articles March 7, 2003
Stephanie Manley (Eau Claire, MI)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have taken this magazine for about 2 years now, and personally, I enjoy it quite a bit. I am not a native of the New York area, nor have I any affiliations with the fine city. Personally I find the articles to be so well written in the New Yorker it is hard to put down. For me this means the first section of the paper is under appreciated, as its all about New York City, gossip and much more. The articles are of a wide varity of topics and often bring up points that may have had rolling around in your conscious but have never let them bubble up to the top. Fascinating articles can range from politics, famous lives of famous peoples, religious societies, and so much more.
This magazine is great if you are a reader. Articles are wordy, and worthwhile. This isn't something your going to be reading just the highlights through. I hardly find myself able to finish a magazine before the next one comes. If you are open minded, and love to read quality articles that will make you think, this magazine for you.
|
