Ghosts of New York: A Novel

Jim Lewis is an amazing writer. He made me feel that I was in NYC. He just nailed the place. As he jumped from scene to scene and character to character, I worked hard to keep everyone straight. But after the detailed and fascinating chapter that took place in a recording studio, he lost me. I couldn't figure out what was going on, although I tried. A cast of characters page would have been helpful. The Kindle tool that brings back the first appearance of a character wasn't installed. All in all, many chapters and characters are just wonderful. I'm glad I read it.

At first I didn't think the story was going to work, but it came together and soared. Several characters and plotlines -- each interesting and engaging--propel the story along gracefully. I was sad (but satisfied) when it ended. Loved it!

Jim Lewis's writing has flipped an important switch and I can't even name it. Many times I had to just stop reading, to just not move past a startling beautiful passage, or a heartbreaking understated revelation about being human. There is nothing nostalgic about this book- and that alone is beautiful to me. Time falls away when reading Ghosts of New York.

A writer's writer. Mozart had to play piano That's what God made him to do. This author was made to write. Each sentence done with extraordinary precision and clarity. If this man only wrote grocery lists I'd pay to read them. I'm no blurb writer. These are my sincere feelings.

I would read anything Jim Lewis ever wrote down to his grocery list. He's a genius and every line of this novel sings.

I have to be honest with you. Pretty much all the New York-themed books I’ve read involve man-chasing, Manolo Blahnik-obsessed shopaholics. When I think of Manhattan, I envision Broadway shows, enchanting parks lit up with fairy lights and fashionable women strolling arm-in-arm down bustling sidewalks. I have since grown out of this chick lit genre, but the glossy veneer of New York life still lives long in my mind.As you have probably surmised, I have never been to the Big Apple. Yet after reading Ghosts of New York, I feel like I’ve been given a tour by a local. To be clear, this isn’t a whimsical romanticized depiction of the city, but an unfiltered slice-of-life look into the people who live in the nondescript outlying neighborhoods, the studio apartments, the walk-up Brownstones. Told by an all-omniscient—in some cases prophetic—narrator, the chapters contain vignettes about troubled New Yorkers who are facing some serious blows—from losing everything to bankruptcy, to falling in and out of love, to realizing you can never come home again. The latter hits home with me, big time.And therein lies the beauty of this book. So many of these stories are relatable to readers because the characters (Caruso excluded) are much like you and me. They’re not on a quest to vanquish evil sorcerers or to solve a whodunnit—they’re just making their way through this game of life the best they can. Needless to say, this isn’t a light read, but it was definitely worth my while because sometimes it’s good to lean into life’s dirty, gritty underbelly. Sometimes it’s good to feel these raw emotions and to know others have felt them too.Deep stuff, I know. But hey, it’s good to go outside your comfort zones and read what I like to call “Intellectual Fiction,” not just for the stories themselves but for the beautiful prose. Hats off to Mr. Lewis for taking the art of writing to stratospheric heights! Most books I read are heavy on the dialogue, but this is mostly narration—a rather bold move for an author, but it works because it casts a voyeuristic effect. Some reviewers knocked a few stars off for this rather unorthodox story structure, but I rather liked it. The mystery of time was also an interesting, albeit disorienting, effect. Some chapters were told in the future tense, others in the past, but it’s anyone’s guess which decade we’re in. If I were to go out on a limb here, I’d say this was a nod to the “ghosts” theme of the book…because time and space is always a big question in the Great Beyond, isn’t it?This review is turning into a novella, and I give you snaps for making it this far! There’s so much more to say about the poetic metaphors, the complex characters, my many questions about the mysterious virus and so on, but I’ll stop right here before giving away any spoilers. Even if this genre isn’t your cup of tea, I encourage you to venture off into uncharted territory and read something that stretches your thoughts about life, existence and the hereafter a little further.Well done, Mr. Lewis! Keep ‘em coming!

Overall, I thought this was okay. I was definitely intrigued from the first sentence with the "Dominic will do 'this'" structure. It was different so it caught my attention. I felt like a lot of the chapters were too short so it felt a bit disjointed at times. My favorite chapter was the really long one about Bridget and Johnny. There was so much story there and enough time to really get through it. But I also enjoyed the chapter that was titled "Ghosts of New York". The O'Malley family in that chapter broke my heart.

Skimmed this book at a store, and good lord, was it bad! It seems aimless and lost, doesn't know what it's doing, and tenses are everywhere. Very confusing, and very slow. Characters were bland, and the sexualization of the female characters was disgusting. Felt like I was back in the 90's reading a teen boy's fantasy! I had to put it down before my eyes rolled out of my face. It needed some serious revision before it was ever published!Did some digging, and the author is a cis white dude (no surprise there) who I suspect wrote this either half-asleep or "excited" and lonely. As most of us men are, to be fair.And, also no surprise, he's good friends with someone at New York Times (not saying names). The NYT and WVU Press have lost the last shreds of their credibility with me after trying to promote this garbage as "good writing".