Why am I always super busy during club weeks? I will do catch-ups properly towards the end of the week (yes, it is already towards the end of the week, SORRY) but I’m really excited to be getting the notifications that people are joining in. And Karen is on it like a pro.
My first 1977 Club read is one I picked up in a brilliant bookshop called J C Books in Watton, Norfolk. If you’re ever in Norfolk, make sure you get there. It’s Apple of My Eye by Helene Hanff – most famed, of course, for 84, Charing Cross Road, though I don’t hear a lot about her other books. Any fan of 84CCR should get a copy of Q’s Legacy pronto, which is sort of a sequel – but I’ve enjoyed all the books I’ve read by her, more or less.
A few years ago I read Letter From New York, which was about the apartment building she lived in, her neighbours, and generally life in the city – collected, if I remember correctly, from various articles over the years. I rather thought that Apple of My Eye would be the same thing – but it is not. Rather, Hanff had been commissioned to write the accompanying text to a book of photos of New York, designed for tourists to get the most out of the city. I don’t know quite what happened to that book, but Apple of My Eye rather wonderfully combines her recommended highlights with an account of visiting them herself and choosing what to include. It’s not a guidebook, it’s more a witty memoir of writing a guidebook – but could certainly function as an edited highlights of New York nonetheless (or, at least, New York in 1977).
Like many people who live in a touristy city, Hanff found that she had actually visited relatively few of the Must See Locations. (I, for instance, didn’t go to the Pitt Rivers for my first ten years in Oxford, and still haven’t made it to the Oxford Museum.) If you have all the time in the world to do something, then you never do – but Hanff realises she has to do all the things she hasn’t. And someone else who hasn’t is her friend Patsy – who also, apparently, has a couple of months to spare. So off they go!
Now, I’ve never been to New York, and I don’t really like travel guides even to places I have been. So my heart sank a little when I realised what sort of book this might be. But it was wrong to sink! While I couldn’t get my head around 5th Street this and 84th Street that, and have never understood how you know which two streets something like ‘6th and 8th’ might be – because surely that could be the same as 8th and 6th – I really enjoyed this anyway. And the reason is because Hanff is so funny about the experience of exploring – and about her friendship with Patsy.
Hanff is brilliant at writing about her friends. In Letter From New York it was Arlene (and Richard and Nina et al), and here it’s Patsy – she tells us enough about them to understand not only their characters, but how she relates to them and what their friendship is like. With Patsy, Hanff has clearly got to the point in the friendship where they can squabble slightly, tease each other, rely on each other, and say precisely what they mean. Patsy is enthusiastic about coming on this tour, but also openly reluctant to do many of the proposed activities (often because of her fear of heights). Her refrain is “write that down”, often for details Hanff considers irrelevant – though, self-evidently, did write them down. Much is also made of their East vs West friendly enmities.
Curiously, while I find all the south-of-the-river vs north-of-the-river chat in London quite tedious (mostly because they seem exactly the same to me), I really enjoyed the way Hanff wrote about East vs West. For example…
Generally speaking, West Siders look dowdy, scholarly and slightly down-at-heel, and the look has nothing to do with money. They look like what a great many of them are: scholars, intellectuals, dedicated professionals, all of whom regard shopping for clothes as a colossal waste of time. East Siders, on the other hand, look chic. Appearances are important to them. From which you’ll correctly deduce that East Siders are conventional and proper, part of the Establishment and in awe of it – which God knows, and God be thanks, West Siders are not.
Hanff, it should be noted, is from the East Side – though does feel like a fish out of water sometimes.
Luckily for me, Hanff assumes no knowledge of New York at all – up to and including telling us that theatre happens on Broadway. As she darts on buses all over the place, we see Ellis Island, the Empire State Building, Bloomingdale’s, Central Park, and all the things one would expect – with a few little-known gems thrown in for good measure. The strangest part to read about was the World Trade Center – still having bits finalised at the time of Hanff writing. Obviously she could know nothing of its eventual fate, and to read of it as an exciting new development in the city, with the best restaurant available, felt rather surreal.
Hanff is very concise in her tour – my copy of the book was only 120 pages. Obviously volumes and volumes could be written about New York, and have been, but I think this is a wonderful little book – probably even more so for somebody familiar with New York. For me, it is a funny and charming account of friendship, which just happens to have a dizzying tour of New York as its backdrop.
What a lovely pick for the club! My mom was a big Helene Hanff fan so I read all her books when I was about twelve. This one was highly influential in forming my image of New York but I haven’t read it since I actually lived near there…I need to revisit.
I love all of Hanff’s books and it was fun to revisit this book through your review. The Duchess of Bloomsbury is wonderful, about her visits to London and the people she met there. Underfoot in Show Business includes her early life.
Oo Underfoot in Show Business is the last of hers I have left to read on my shelves. I didn’t love The Duchess of Bloomsbury when I read it – she came across rather unpleasantly to me at the time – but I should re-read.
:) I’m doing my best to keep up with it all – such a flurry of interesting posts!
I loved this one, and should have dug it out for a re-read. I’ve never been to New York, but I would have loved to tour the city with Hanff – what an experience that would have been! :)
Wouldn’t it just? Though exhausting, by the sounds of it!
Simon, here is my link for Coming into the Country by John McPhee for the 1977 Club:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/day-1205-the-1977-club-coming-into-the-country/
Travellin’ Penguin reviewed this title for the club too and I must say you have both sold me on it. For what ever reason, though I LOVED 84, Charing Cross Road and liked Q’s Legacy and the Duchess of Bloomsbury, I never thought to read any of Hanff’s other works. I will remedy that!
Do remedy away! It’s such fun.
Have loved everything Hanff ever wrote and was delighted to see your review!
FYI, my copy of “Letter from New York” is subtitled, “BBC Woman’s Hour Broadcasts.” (Yes, that’s “Woman” and not “Women.”)
From her dedication ~
“TO:
Chris Longley, who hired me;
Sue MacGregor, who “presented” me;
Ursula Kenny, who “produced” me in New York;
And all the other lovely people at BBC’s Woman’s Hour.
With much gratitude and affection.”
del
Oh thanks Del! I must have known that when I read it, but had definitely forgotten.
Several years since I read this but Helene Hanff is wonderfully readable, and I must get round to those of hers I have missed.
I’m coming to the end of my Hanff pile sadly, but savouring them :)
You’ve sold me on this, not that I need much persuading to read Hanff…. Luckily I have a birthday coming up so can put in a big hint….
Perfect :)
I am so glad you also read and chatted about this wonderful little book. It was a real delight. Hanff is so much fun to read. My only problem is while reading her books I always have a visual of Anne Bancroft in my mind as her. It just adds something else to her books for me.
Isn’t she a delight? And yes, Anne Bancroft is definitely how I picture her, since I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of her!
Hanff is a charming writer and Apple of My Eye is a delightful way to experience New York City. One of the things that traveling has taught me is to see my home city, Washington, DC (the District to those of us who live here) through the eyes of a traveler and visitor. The city becomes a new delight and experience when viewed through my traveler’s eyes. Hanff does this for NYC, and I adore her books.
Hanff is a charming writer and Apple of My Eye is a delightful way to experience New York City. One of the things that traveling has taught me is to see my home city, Washington, DC (the District, to those of us who live here) through the eyes of a traveler and visitor. The city becomes a new delight and experience when viewed through my traveler’s eyes. Hanff does this for NYC, and I adore her books.
I like reading about Oxford for the same reason! When I was in DC, I read Calvin Trillin’s ‘Floater’ – which is a novel, but still an interesting slant on DC.
Based on the excerpt you give I might have to avoid this book as it would be too sad a read, a portrait of a beloved version of NY (my old hometown) that no longer exists.
This does sound rather delightful. It’s been a good 20 years so since I last went New York, so this could be a good way to ‘revisit’ the city, albeit virtually. What a lovely pick for the Club!
Hmm. I have three comments.
1. I’ve read all of her books and I agree with what you said in a comment above about Duchess of Bloomsbury.
2. To me one of the challenges with the 1977 club, ACOB, etc., is that I want to read books from a year that are germane to the year in which they were published. A WWII story published in 1977 seems like cheating. That said, you chose a book that really was set in its time. NYC in 1977 was a way different place than it is now despite many of the landmarks being the same.
3 If you haven’t seen this post on my blog, you really need to. A tale of a guy from Australia who met and ended up corresponding with Hanff. It is a really sweet story. https://hogglestock.com/2018/03/15/meeting-helene-hanff/
Hanff was quite a character. I ran into her in a bookstore when I was the Penguin sales rep for New York, and when my book group decided to read 84 Charing Cross Road for our tenth anniversary I invited her to come. I guess I didn’t spell out that I wanted her to say something and she was a bit disgruntled when we started asking her questions, and asked why she had to sing for her supper. She told us that the book was short because she hadn’t had enough letters to bulk it up and actually had to be creative to come up with enough to make the publisher happy (which we interpreted as her having created some of the letters). One of my friends asked sympathetically, “Did you ever make it to England?” and she snapped, “You obviously haven’t read all my books!” which was true. She cheered up when she saw the feast we had prepared and when the boyfriends and spouses arrived and made a fuss over her. We wrapped up a lot of food for her to take home and she said we could invite her back when we’d finished her oeuvre! However, it took us years to host another author.
What a wonderful anecdote! Gosh, she sounds quite intimidating…