Love love love Nora Ephron's piece on the Apthorp in this week's New Yorker (unfortunately, it's not online, so no link, and I haven't read anything else in the issue, so I can't say if it's worth buying, but if it just arrived and you put it in the pile, it's worth taking into the bathroom with you--oh, the other thing I read was the Talk of the Town about Meg and Jason getting married, which I'm pretty sure I blogged about a while ago--why, yes, indeed, I did--so scoop you, Rebecca Mead!).
Why I like the piece:
1) Aunt M and Uncle J live across the street from the Apthorp, so that's been my New York neighborhood for the last 30 years.
2) After college a good friend of mine lived in the Apthorp (I wonder how much key money her dad paid), so for a few years I stayed there whenever I went to New York.
3) Though Nora Ephron can be annoying and cloying, especially when she writes movies, this is her at her best: acutely observant of life as we* live it, and gently mocking of everything, including herself (Crazy Salad is one of the books I saved in last month's purge).
4) She takes on the Upscaling of Everything (my phrase, my caps) in contemporary America, especially contemporary urban America, something I too deplore, especially in City, which was a nice, quirky, homey kind of place when I grew up there, and is now full of Bugaboos and luxury condos. She gets over it, though, and maybe I should too.
*That is a terrible "we," because of course the piece is about life as privileged New Yorkers live it (and, let's face it, mostly white, Jewish, privileged New Yorkers), and I know I should change the phrase to "contemporary life," or "life as it is lived," or some such, but it sounds so much better the way it is that I decided to just go with the disclaimer.
2 comments:
Ha! I *just* read this piece, and I also enjoyed it. I went to a party at the Apthorp back when Gil worked on Wall Street and we had fancy friends. I remember being totally charmed by that courtyard. Anyway, I almost blogged about it, but you did it for me!
I am offended by your Jewish comment. You are too closed minded to live in NY. You don't deserve the privilege.
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