Kissing in Manhattan

I loved this book. It's lovely and idiosyncratic, and quite unexpected. Schickler made be laugh (something a book rarely makes me do), but he also impressed me with the sensitivity with which he handled his fragile characters. The structure is also great - it's a fully realized world constructed from different points of view (it's a novel in short stories), giving the reader the impression of looking through a keyhole into a variety of lives. There are a lot of threads to control, but Schickler does it well, and manages to keep them all pleasingly taut.

Loved it! Perfect, precise character descriptions and word choice. I didn't expect the connected stories to eventually tumble out into a larger plot, but I thought it was well done. I highly recommend this book to lovers of weird short stories, one of my favorite genres.

There are so few reviews here, I feel compelled to give some input on this lovely novel. This is one of those books that I know I will press into the hands of my friends and insist they read immediately. Perhaps I am just young and naive enough to believe in the New York City that Schickler sketches here, but I found this pastiche of interconnected stories and characters to be both touched by magic and grounded in a believable reality. Schickler's writing is simple, but not bone-dry. He populates his world with wit, passion, and sometimes danger. I didn't love every single story he told but all had such humanity to them that even if I didn't really like the characters, I felt something close to affinity with them. He's an author who show more clearly loves his characters, which is refreshing in these days of hip, ironic detachment. The love triangle of Rally, James, and Patrick that gradually emerges is genuine and moving. Someday soon I plan on moving to a big city and I hope that I remain as steadfastly longing as the people in Schickler's. Recommended for dreamers, no cynics allowed. show less

This is a collection of loosely connected stories whose characters all live in the same apartment building in Manhattan. Falling somewhere between a novel and short stories, this book fails on both ends. The stories are too disconnected to achieve the flow of a novel or for the reader to care much about the characters’ development, but they are too interconnected to really stand on their own.

The writing is, for the most part, very good, but the characters are often unsympathetic and alien. Some judicious editing would have helped this book; for instance, the story “Jacob’s Bath” could have safely been cut, which would have made for a stronger book. However, a few stories stand out and are good enough to stand on their own; two show more of my favorites were “Fourth Angry Mouse,” about a failed comedian who finds his voice in the persona of a giant mouse in an off-Broadway play, and “The Opals,” about a man who meets a strange Hephaestian jeweler in the basement of a sex shop and receives a gift of the earrings he will someday give to the woman he loves. I could have left the rest of the volume alone, though. show less

Mr.Schickler is a clever, insightful fellow wise beyond his years. An unusual but compelling book about male/female relationships in the late 20th century - in a seemingly decadent Manhattan society - yet, he is positive and empathetic - the book is filled with marvelous characterizations and intertwined story lines - not a perfect novel but well worth reading. Schickler has real talent and he employs many intelligent and interesting phrases. ("radical decency".)

"The Smoker" is brilliant and delightful. The rest, not so much. I found the characters unbelievable and the writing to be uneven--there's a limit to the number of times I can hear a man described as having "sleepy blue eyes and straight teeth" by different narrative voices.

I found this dissapointing overall. I read it for my book group/duo and the other member commented it was more like a series of studies for a novel. I just started disliking most of the characters and their painfully rich and disturbed Manhattan lives. It was clever and interesting how he connected up some of the stories and characters but not enough so that is became a cohesive entire novel. I felt more duty bound to finish Manhattan, I didn't really worry too much about who might end up with whom and if Patrick Rigg would turn out to be a great guy or die or whatever. Actually, the last two chapter/stories turned out to be the most cohesive and I wish the begining had been a little bit more thought through. I disliked Patrick as well, show more also took a swift and visceral dislike to Checkers, who, thankfully, almost never reappeared. I'm not sure I would have liked it more if had been fleshed out and turned into a proper novel but perhaps I would have felt less annoyed while reading it. Perhaps all the little bits of pseudo magic realism would have felt less intrusive as well. Think this is bound for BookCrossing. show less