This Old Man

Starred review from September 7, 2015
The latest collection of writings from New Yorker fiction editor Angell is anchored by his much-lauded rumination on aging, “This Old Man.” At 94, Angell is a witness to history but hardly a relic of the past. He always seems to know when to drop a reference to Harry Potter or David “Big Papi” Ortiz. The book is filled with many of Angell’s timeless subjects: baseball; aging; his stepfather, E.B. White; and life inside the publication that has dominated his life. Just as he is adept at changing subjects, so is he at changing forms, including a little bit of everything in this collection—he calls the resulting mixture a dog’s breakfast. Angell is equally at ease writing annual Christmas poems, witty internal memos, letters, haiku, speeches, literary essays, and “casuals.” His tribute to John Updike, with whom he worked for decades, is a touching portrait of the man as both friend and literary legend. Having written for the New Yorker since 1944, during the tenure of its founder, Harold Ross, Angell can write about it with a true sense of the magazine’s history. There is a reason why nostalgia feels so comforting—and Angell represents the best sort of writing about the remembrance of things past. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM.

October 15, 2015

The New Yorker is an affectionate subject of this anthology of work by Angell, longtime contributor and editor for the magazine. As the son of fiction editor Katharine White and stepson of E.B. White, the author describes growing up surrounded by the publication "on every side"--an experience readers would no doubt enjoy hearing more of in these pages. Angell writes of the editorships of Harold Ross and William Shawn and describes editing fiction (including John Updike's work) in two of the most fascinating pieces, "Storyville" and "The Fadeaway," in which Angell relishes the chance to publish "stories in this magazine that felt like nothing in the language that had come before." Age and the passage of time permeate the book. Angell refers to 1930s interviews with Bertrand Russell and Fiorello La Guardia and includes a number of tender and elegiac "Remembrances" to mark the deaths of many celebrated figures. VERDICT While essays such as the titular "This Old Man" and "Over the Wall" grab and hold tighter than others, fans of The New Yorker (and of baseball, one of Angell's most beloved subjects), will take pleasure in digging into this rich collection culled from an extraordinary career.--Doug Diesenhaus, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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