Customer Reviews

Kissing in Manhattan

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

What a great book! Kissing in Manhattan opens up with no promise particularly and then turns into an absolute page-turner when the web unfolds. The plot is random at first with a lot of play in character description and analysis. Afterwards when reader finds him/herself questioning if they have seen this character before - it turns out they are all linked either by residence or by association to an apartment block in Manhattan. It's hard to give a plot description of this book without giving the game away (is there a plot anyway one may ask?) -what ultimately unfurls is a robust observation of a series of weird and quite wonderful people that fill Manhattan's streets in some way. Embroiled in the plot is a realization of peoples hopes, fears, desires, family problems, first (and last) loves and reasons why they cannot/ will not love. Although each chapter is linked and entwined by some element of blackness or even 'black' comedy - the reader is left with a sense of hope and 'urban' salvation for all these amazing characters and, in fact, humankind. Many chapters in the book (and one character in particular)remind me of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho - see what you think but any character remotely like that is BOUND to be interesting! Read this book, it's a little out of the ordinary - but it's worth it and you'll like it! Another odd little Amazon quick-pick I recommend is The Losers Club by Richard Perez

I loved the idea of linked short stories working as a novel -- "Slaves of New York" is one of my favorites books, so I was glad when a friend recommended this book to me as a sort of bizarre episode of "Sex and the City" -- all of the stories in this book revolve around the residents of a particular Manhattan apartment building and by "linking" the stories, Schickler turns them into a novel. Individually the stories are very well written and delightfully twisted -- there is "Telling it All to Otis," about the guy whose best friend is the old elevator in the building, and "Serendipity," about the young woman who seduces her co-worker, strips him of his clothes, and then humiliates him by locking him out in the hallway. The art of Schickler's prose is that he is able to pinpoint his character's quirkiness through a variety of methods, be it dialogue, character details, or by placing his oddballs in unlikely settings. My favorite running thread in the book involved the high school teacher and his gorgeous student, whose courtship is detailed in "The Smoker," one of the best written stories in the book. The only drawback for me was connecting with the adult character of Patrick Rigg, the dark, kinky millionaire, whose running thread sends all the plot lines into their strange denouement (though "Duty," which recounts the tale of Patrick's youth is a real beauty of comedy and pathos). Schickler is a terrifically talented writer and I am looking forward to reading more of him.

At first it seems a little disjointed -- various characters, all living in Manhattan, most of them in an old building called the Preemption, built in the 1890s, each with their own private psychosis/neurosis. After a while, however, a plotline linking all of these characters emerges.

There is the 31-year-old private school teacher whose student's parents want him to marry her. There is Jasper, who wanted to be a comedian like his grandfather and instead makes his stage debut as an angry giant mouse. There is Jeremy who is so shy but is actually the most interesting (he gets the most short stories devoted to him.)

There is also the chilling Patrick, Jeremy's roommate, who likes to dress up women and tie them up, but not sleep with them, in an effort to dull the pain of seeing his brother die in an absurd manner as a child. (The fact that he has the same name and manner as the character in "American Psycho" probably made him really scary to me.) Oddly enough, Patrick goes to church to see one particular priest, who of course has his own story.

I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

I'm not usually a fan of the short story, but I did enjoy this book, as it was much more than simply a collection of stories. Although each could stand alone (except for the final one), they are all interconnected as characters from any given story pop up in unexpected (contrived?) places in others. This book started out as a light fantastical comedy but became dark as Patrick emerged as a major player. Some of the earlier stories were weaker than the others, so give it a chance if you are not totally excited right away.

Schickler's collection of stories are strange, but in a wonderful way. They are slightly surreal and absurd, but still believeable in an out there kind of way. Schickler's voice is one that draws the reader in to his world, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

The stories in Kissing in Manhattan (which is a wonderful title for the book--I can't think of anything more appropriate) all center around one odd apartment building, Preemption, and the main characters and events of one story are secondary to the next. The best story in the collection is "The Smoker," which is an odd sort of love story that first appeared in The New Yorker and then later in the O. Henry Awards. All the stories in this collection relate to love, or sex at the very least. There is the very touching "Jacob's Bath" and "Telling It All to Otis." "Kissing in Manhattan" is a very strange sexual tale that contains no sex. One of the weak spots of the collection is "Duty," which is the only story that is told in first person. It is an interesting story, but it is a bit jarring to go from a certain distance between reader and narrator and then to jump in this close. It's a good story, but Schickler should have trusted the voice and distance that worked so well for the other stories. The other weak spot was the final story "The Green Balloon." Even though all the stories in the collection relate to each other (and they add to each other by reading each other), they can be taken as seperate stories. With the exception of the final story. It wraps up events from other stories and you can't understand it or truly enjoy it without having read several of the other stories. Still, this is a great collection from one of American letters' great new voices.

We read this book for my book club and everyone loved it. We all came to the consensus that this was one of the best books we have ever read. The stories are very well written and extremely entertaining. We had a wonderful, engaging, and thought-provoking discussion. David Schickler is genius in how he intertwines all of the stores. Please David Schickler, write more stores!

Do yourself a favour and commit to reading at least the first two stories, come hell or high water, before deciding whether you like this book or not. If you only read the first one then you will abandon it, as I almost did, which would be a real shame because although this book requires a bit of dedication it is definitely worth it. It's not that the first story is bad, it just simply...pointless. There's no reason for it to be there.

The book, which centres around the Preemption building and its inhabitants, is somewhere between a collection of short stories and a coherent novel as in the first stories the characters are introduced either one by one or in couples and then later they start weaving in and out of each other's stories. For a first-time author David Schickler pulls this off remarkably well, managing to keep a constant narrative flow which never over-explains or over-emphasizes any single character. They may not all be likeable but they are definitely all interesting. Even as the book moves into its second half and you start to have three main characters, with the rest of them becoming somewhat more of a backdrop, you don't regret having met a single one of them as they all become building blocks which together create the special atmosphere of the book; one which will linger after the final page is read and the book is closed.

"Kissing in Manhattan" is like tasting a piece of a completely new kind of exquisite confectionery - two minutes ago you didn't even know that it existed but it will leave you with a craving for more.

And I didn't even like the style. The characters are shallow and the plot is thin and contrived in this collection of loosely-strung stories of sheer male fantasy. Some books inspire me, some books entertain me. This book was a total bore, inspiring me to nothing but annoyance at having spent 20-some bucks on the hardcover edition, and then wonder that this guy ever got a story into the New Yorker. Don't believe the hype on this one - the emperor has no clothes.

I'm really enjoying this book, I write in present tense because I'm reading thru a 2nd time to gather great quotes. I find that I have many things in common with each of the men and find each of the women disireable in their own way... how else can you compliment great writing? The characters seem real, just like people you would expect or hope to meet.

This is a mostly masterly tale of simple love, dark lust, and dangerous perversions in a city that caters to all of these. Schickler, it seems, is much more adept at describing perversion than love, and his characters seem a bit one-dimensional, but this is all forgiven when you can appreciate the web of stories and details of a secret, magical, unknown New York.

Starting deceptively as a collection of tangentially related short stories, by the end we have a full-fledged novel told from a variety of perspectives.

As short stories, there are some weak spots, particularly the first two chapters. These two also fail to contribute substantially to the novel aspect of the book. A later story, about a lonely, misogynist lawyer with a birthmark, is exceptional, although not essential to the grand scheme.

The best character in the book by far is the priest, Thomas Merchant. Like many of the characters in *Kissing*, he is first introduced as a background element, but slowly emerges as a crucial factor in the story. Notice how his personality changes based on whose eyes are watching him.

The women, unfortunately, are rather bland, and the ones who are at all interesting (except Thomas Merchant's three aunts, who are intriguing but play supporting roles) seem to be so only because of their exposure to Patrick Rigg, the millionaire psychopath who seems to have every woman in Manhattan at his knees.

The unifying thread of all the stories is the Preemption, an old, gothic, beautiful and expensive apartment building on the Upper West Side. The doorman of the building, Sender, is one of several magical characters in the book, who never fully reveal themselves, but make an ocassional appearance to greatly affect the lives of New Yorkers. Sender has control over the Preemption; he manipulates the building and those inside of it to appease God's desire. Morality John, the street musician, is the prophet and seer. Thomas Merchant, the priest, has a magical quality as well, but his mystique is compromised (although his character is greatly enhanced) by the inclusion of one story told from his perspective. The building owner, whose name I've forgot, is also a mystery.

This book seems a natural candidate to be made into a screenplay. Certain stories could be omitted, or substantially abridged, but the multiple-perspective format should be retained. Possibly Sender could act as the narrator.. Anyhow, Mr. Schickler, if you use this idea, please send the royalties to my paypal account.