Reading New York

Publishers Weekly

In this summa by an experienced literary critic, Tytell attempts to emulate the authors he has spent a lifetime studying-Melville, Whitman, his "two Henrys" (Miller and James), Kerouac, and Ginsberg-by employing their autobiographical techniques, and weaving his own life into his examinations of the New York writers he admires. It is an intriguing idea that falls short. Tytell grew up on Manhattan's Upper West Side, son of Belgian Jewish refugees from the Nazis; a childhood eye disorder proscribed reading, so naturally that "forbidden fruit" became his passion. Tytell's middle-class childhood, sexual awakening, professional advancement, romance and mature love are delivered in an overheated style that doesn't match the scale of his revelations, particularly in sections that seem like attempted homages to Whitman and Miller. Such passages interrupt, and ultimately distract from, lucid readings of novels and poems, and excursions into aspects of New York City history that parallel his favored authors' lives (as well as his family's and his own). For those unfamiliar with Tytell's authors or with New York's history, the book's thumbnail bios and overview of New York's development will have some value as a primer. Those seeking more depth on either subject might do better consulting the sources listed in Tytell's comprehensive bibliography. (Aug. 26) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In this biographical work, Tytell (Naked Angels: The Lives and Literature of the Beat Generation) discusses the life and history of prominent New York-based writers from Melville, Poe, and Whitman to Kerouac and Ginsberg but intertwines and parallels his discussion with his own family's history and his experiences growing up in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s. Overcoming an early eye affliction, Tytell developed a deep appreciation of literature that was inextricably linked with his desire to define himself as an American despite his European roots (he was born in Belgium). It was partly through reading writers such as Whitman, who were themselves captured by the energy, pace, and mobility of New York City, that Tytell endured adolescence and first love and came to pursue his own academic and literary career. Tytell, who is now a professor of English at Queens College, displays an impressive breadth of knowledge of literature and history. But he always returns to the central notion of how New York influenced writers and vice versa and how this in turn inspired him. Carefully written in spare, intellectual prose, this work is leisurely in pace but intimate in style. A worthy addition to both academic and public libraries.-Rebecca Bollen, North Bergen, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A disjunctive memoir cum meditation on Gotham. Tytell (English/Queens College; Paradise Outlaws, 1999, etc.) focuses on writers who lived in New York, from Henry James to the Beats, but intercuts scenes from his own life, not always to the desired effect. The early pages are appealing. The author describes boyhood eye problems that made reading difficult (cortisone eventually cured what numerous surgeries did not) and relates how his imagination was fired by Herman Melville’s fiction, especially "Billy Budd" and Typee. Relying heavily on Herschel Parker’s monumental biography, Tytell chronicles Melville’s decline from a popular writer of travel books to an unknown customs inspector who cranked out thousands of obscure lines in his massive pilgrimage poem, Clarel (Tytell’s vagueness about this work suggests he has not read it). The author is a bit dismissive of such Melville peers as Nathaniel Hawthorne ("cold and analytical") and Washington Irving (a "local colorist"). Among the other literary figures whose lives and writings he examines closely are Edgar Poe, Walt Whitman, Henrys Miller and James. (Oddly, Tytell declares factual the highly debatable story that Poe died in Baltimore after selling his vote in assorted precincts.) Into all of this he weaves family history--his grandfather, a diamond trader, expected the author to be the same--as well as memories of his childhood, adolescence, education, love affairs, first apartments and part-time jobs. Tytell obviously loves literature and his city, but he’s also exceedingly fond of himself. He makes sure to let us know that he is often the brightest light in the room, cataloguing high-school grades and undergraduate honors, and he tellsus more than we want to know about his sexual performance with beautiful women. Equally unwelcome is the nasty intelligence that while working in a restaurant Tytell once urinated in the drink of an offensive customer. In this display case, auriferous observations about literature lie alongside some substantial chunks of fool’s gold. Agent: Elizabth Sheinkman/Elaine Markson Agency