My Ears Are Bent

Rating:
Summary: Just a little less then perfect, but perfect...
Review: "Up in the old hotel" was a fantastic book, with Joseph Mitchell's New Yorker stories. Perfect stories in poetic, crystalclear prose. Pure joy. The stories in "My ears are bent" were written before he became a writer for the New Yorker, and they are absolutely great. They have a kind of rough quality that makes the New Yorker stories seem too polished in comparison, too perfect. And I was a fan of these stories! But this book is, although it may seem a little less perfect, even better. A treasure!

Rating:
Summary: Any Joesph Mitchell fan will find something here to like
Review: A Joseph Mitchell anything is worth my time, but after having read UP IN THE OLD HOTEL, other writings will suffer by comparison. The works in this particular volume are a compilation of Mitchell's newspaper stories from the 1930s. While Mitchell's prose is sharp and illuminating, the subject matter comes off as slight compared to Mitchell's other labors. Mitchell had such a reputation for wanting his magazine stories to be perfect that these newspaper stories have the sense of being rushed to the presses.

Having said that, there are some great moments in the book. The book has a nice profile section of 1930s cartoonists, which is just the kind of subject matter that Mitchell handles well in that it gets past the part that everyone sees to the part Mitchell wants to know about. The section on Voodoo is hysterical and very much like his later New Yorker work. The book ends with a funny profile of playwright George Bernard Shaw.

If you have never read Mitchell, start with UP IN THE OLD HOTEL, but if you are already a fan, there are enough gems in this collection to make it worth your while.

Rating:
Summary: Any Joesph Mitchell fan will find something here to like
Review: A Joseph Mitchell anything is worth my time, but after having read UP IN THE OLD HOTEL, other writings will suffer by comparison. The works in this particular volume are a compilation of Mitchell's newspaper stories from the 1930s. While Mitchell's prose is sharp and illuminating, the subject matter comes off as slight compared to Mitchell's other labors. Mitchell had such a reputation for wanting his magazine stories to be perfect that these newspaper stories have the sense of being rushed to the presses.

Having said that, there are some great moments in the book. The book has a nice profile section of 1930s cartoonists, which is just the kind of subject matter that Mitchell handles well in that it gets past the part that everyone sees to the part Mitchell wants to know about. The section on Voodoo is hysterical and very much like his later New Yorker work. The book ends with a funny profile of playwright George Bernard Shaw.

If you have never read Mitchell, start with UP IN THE OLD HOTEL, but if you are already a fan, there are enough gems in this collection to make it worth your while.

Rating:
Summary: 4 stars is generous, but it's a must-read for Mitchell fans
Review: Couldn't get my hands on this book fast enough.

The delight of My Ears are Bent lies in seeing the early output of one of America's best-ever writers. It's a little like watching a great artist in the process of creation. All of the elements are there - the fascination for the darker sides of human nature, the peaks into odd little corners of old New York, the genesis of some of his recurrent themes.

While Mitchell's later New Yorker work contained wit and very subtle, very dark humor, some of the pieces in My Ears are Bent are laugh-out-loud funny. And some of it is positively chilling - his absolutely stone-faced report on witnessing an execution leaves one feeling nothing but creepy.

But while there's some great stuff here, the book is uneven. For one thing, Mitchell was working for a newspaper when these stories were written, cranking out text at a ferocious volume, and didn't have the time to create brilliance he was later afforded at The New Yorker (to say nothing of the gem-cutting skill of New Yorker editors). And it's also clear that at the time these stories were written, Mitchell did not yet have the subtlety and flawless control displayed in his later work.

One caution: I suspect that some readers may find some of the descriptions of various ethnic groups - particularly African Americans - condescending or worse. These stories clearly reflect a somewhat different ethic than we expect to see today.

On a standalone basis, this is NOT a fabulous book. . I gave it the 4 stars because of Mitchell's importance as a writer, the fascination of being able to so clearly see his skills evolving, and because anyone who was touched by Mitchell's later writing MUST read it.

--GVI

Rating:
Summary: Rather boring
Review: Stories are well crafted, but the subject matter didn't interest me. Not bad, but I wouldn't buy it again.

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Mitchell collection worthy of his legend
Review: The good news is that all of the Mitchell virtues displayed in "Up In the Old Hotel" are emphatically present in this welcome collection of his earlier work for divers New York newspapers of the Depression era. Whether interviewing boxing promoters, or anyone in else George Bernard Shaw or the purveyors of Harlem "voodoo" products, Mitchell never lost his sense of courtly curiousity or his unerring ability to choose just the right word to express the outre character and often heartbreaking earnestness of his human subjects. Here's a worthy companion to sit on the shelf between A. J. Liebling's "Back Where I Come From" and "Up In The Old Hotel." It it also, by the way, a far better buy than the newly-republished "McSorley's Wonderful Saloon," the lion's share of which was reprinted in "Up In The Old Hotel."