Reviews

'New Yorker' film critic Anthony Lane speaks with Charlie Rose about a collection of Lane's reviews and other writings,"Nobody's Perfect." Lane speaks about his enthusiasms in film especially for works of comedy. He talks about Cary Grant as key player in the history of cinema. He speaks about Woody Allen now esentially doing nothing more than creating works which he has done before. He speaks about his debt to the film critic Pauline Kael. All of this is done in a slightly understated British way. It nonetheless did not come out as very convincing or interesting. One of the great skills of Charlie Rose is in his selection of guests. He is a person of quality who often gets the best from all areas in question. While Lane does say interesting and sensible things in certain places- I am not sure that Charlie Rose with this one has done what he usually does in guest- selection.

Reviews

Roger Angell wrote a short description of McKelway's 37 year tenure at "The New Yorker": "McKelway, a brilliant and prolific writer, had been a staff member of The New Yorker since 1933, and in that time also became its first managing editor for factual stuff. He hired numbers of young reporters who went on to celebrated careers with the magazine, including E. J. Kahn, Philip Hamburger, and Brendan Gill.... His best-known piece was six-part Profile of Walter Winchell, but his favorite subject was oddball criminals, like a master embezzler he called "the wily Wilby," or an inveterate forger of one-dollar bills known as Mister 880. He had a lovely touch." One of his best series covered was a four-part article from 1945 about American bomber squadrons in the Marianas Islands: "The rain fell on the just hardened concrete of the runway, on the black-topped asphalt of the taxiways and hard-stands, splashed into the faces of the ground crews crouching in pup tents alongside the places where the homecoming B-29s would park, if they ever did park. It fell on the surrounding white-capped sea. It washed away some of the unfinished roads leading from the airstrip to the air crews' quarters; it flooded already muddy roads and walks in wing and group and squadron establishments on the bluff over the sea; it ruined the previous day's work of the Army Engineers, who were building three-lane asphalt highways to the unimpressive headquarters of the island commander on Saipan's highest hilltop; and it made a mess of the carefully graded terraces between the closely packed Quonset huts where the administrative business of the island would be carried out weeks later when a fresh invasion force took off from Saipan to invade Iwo Jima. It fell on the cemeteries of the Marine and Army men who had been killed in the battles that won the Marianas from the Japanese." All of McKelway pieces are long and consist of countless small facts that bring his subjects, and particularly the scoundrels he loved to write about, to vivid and believeable life. Many of the essays in this wonderful collection came from his regular column, "The Annals of Crime." True Tales from the Annals of Crime & Rascality is an earlier collection of some of his contributions to the Annals. He does just as well with the good guys: Harry Grossman swam across the bay to a beach in East Quogue, where he served papers: "This is an outrage" she said when Grossman put the damp subpoena on her lap. "An outrage is it?" he replied. "Suppose I get cramps? Suppose I get drowned? Would that be an outrage or wouldn't it?" He swam back across the inlet, full of righteous indignation. My first serious magazine subscription was to "The New Yorker". In a sense, I grew up with the magazine, and McKelway was one of my best tutors. This wonderful collection seems as alive to me today as it was back in the 1950s when I first starting reading them. Robert C. Ross 2010

Oh man.... this has been a long time coming. McKelway's contemporaries and peers A.J.Liebling and Joseph Mitchell have been getting their (deserved) props for a while, now. Finally McKelway is ready to get his, albeit posthumously. I don't yet have this book, but for years I have treasured my two copies (one for loaning) of his long-out-of-print collection "True Tales From The Annals Of Crime And Rascality." Anyone who knows that book, or "The Edinburgh Caper," will be dancing in the streets over this publication. McKelway had a deeply strange view of the world, and it seeped through his reports on con-men and misfits. You have to read this stuff. If you are already a fan of Liebling or Mitchell, have amazon overnight you the book. If you haven't read them, either... start here and have some fun.

Reviews

I've had this edition of The New Yorker for years and have enjoyed the accessibility of the articles. However, every current subscriber now has free access to the same archive of articles online and it's much faster to get the stuff you want off of their website. Still, it's a mighty nice collection and a handsome addition to anyone's library, and the price is dirt cheap (this started out originally as a $100 product). So, you now have a choice in retrieving a treasure trove of great writing.

I've been a New Yorker fan for a while (I usually read my parents' old copies when they're done) so I thought it would be interesting to own the set for myself. I understand that the Complete New Yorker is available on an external hard drive, and this might be a good option, but I purchased the 8 DVD package, and found it to be pretty hopeless in its design and execution. For starters, the DVDs do not use a standard reader (like Adobe, say) and come with one of their own. The installation process is unwieldy and ridiculous, and the reader itself is riddled with bugs (I haven't yet been able to access any of the content). In addition to this, under the terms and conditions, the user must agree to a spyware-like program, giving permission for web browsing information to be logged, and personal information sold on to third parties. The Complete New Yorker is a good idea, for sure, but this set is pathetic.

I'm an avid New Yorker reader, for over 10 years. I was really excited when the DVD set came out, ordered it right away and boy wasn't I in for a rude awakening. The interface is really hard to figure out, each article takes an eon to load, and don't bother with the search function, it just doesn't work. The bug-infested, awkwardly designed original DVD set got unanimous bad reviews, just do a search. Against my best judgement, I bought the v1.3 update disk this year hoping for a redemption. It arrived after a MONTH I ordered it, and it simply WON'T install. I'm no computer genius but I'll say I'm reasonably tech savvy, but I just simply can't get the installation to work. It'll stuck at 100% and freeze the whole system. I emailed, called the tech support, NO response. This is basically just a text viewer, i don't know why it's so damn hard to make it work.

Our son just gave me The Complete New Yorker: Eighty Years of the Nation's Greatest Magazine as an "early" birthday gift - He could NOT wait until July! It is wonderful! I will be 76 so I know all the covers and the cartoons - I also have 2 iMacs - both with 20" screens - so I can QUICKLY open up the entire magazine on one page and read it. The design is terrific - you can find anything you want in seconds - and what fun it is! I thought it might have cost as much as $400.00 - it is a great gift. Buy it for someone who loves the New Yorker - make that someone very, very happy.

I am a faithful New Yorker Magazine subscriber and jumped at the chance to have the complete archive available on CD. Here's the problem that others may be able to help me with. Am I a complete dunce or is the Search function totally impossible? The Help page does not help. I have been trying to find an article (year I can't recall) about domestic violence which told about how worthless protection orders are, that they are only good for "where to find the body." Protection orders don't protect someone. They won't stop someone from doing violence. In my search I've tried domestic violence, protection order, law enforcement, even where to find the body. Is there some secret or basics that I've been unable to grasp? What a great concept to have a complete archive or The New Yorker. What a BIG disappointment that you can't find anything. Water water every where, but not a drop....

Reviews

I'm a happy buyer! The item was priced fairly, and was shipped promptly. I'd use this seller again!

I've followed the New Yorker cartoons off and on for many years. I found some of them in this collection to be borderline; but my main objection was the paper and printing quality. Was it always this flimsy?

I give this calendar to my brother-in-law each Christmas and he and my sister report they have great fun reading the daily cartoons. So, this is a Christmas gift that keeps on giving until the next Christmas!

My husband and I have been enjoying these calendars for years. Now they have even added in an extra feature of a puzzle or information on the back of each day. Of course, the humor is great. We give these out to loads of friends and family at Christmas. Then we peel back the page each day to reveal today's little gem, knowing that so many of our friends are sharing the same laugh.

What a great gift. I should have given it to someone, but found it so funny, I kept it for myself. There is nothing like New Yorker cartoons.