Customer Reviews
Not just for New Yorkers 
2008-01-08
This magazine has been cluttering up my living spaces for many years. One doesn't just toss these away after a quick read-there is always something to return to, whether a great cartoon, superb fiction, a wonderful essay.
I would not be without it.
How to be a snob? 
2007-12-27
Exactly. While the previous reviewer to use this title matched it with a full 5-star rating, I don't. If you want the most pompous view on everything no one ever asked about, then go ahead and buy a copy. I thought perhaps an informed, enlightend editorial tone would have been a nice perspective to bring into my home. Now, years later, they won't stop sending that rag no matter how many times they claim it's my final issue.
In short, not a fan. My advise to you: get one issue off the newstand and see what you think. If you're like me, you'll hate it and never go back.
Still the finest magazine in America 2007-09-27
Well-written, timely, erudite and down-to-earth -- no other magazine is as informative and varied in tone, or as much a pleasure to read. The "New Yorker" has a number of "beats" it covers -- contemporary politics, media, popular culture and art, humor, new fiction and a smidge of local, New York goings-on (not as much as in the old days, but the regionalism is still a delight.) Yes, other magazines cover these topics, but not in as accessible a manner. The "Atlantic" and "Harper's" tread similar paths, but they both seem overly stern and inaccessible by comparison. The "New Yorker" used to be incredibly fusty: since the magazine's 1992 facelift, courtesy of editor Tina Brown, it has a much lighter, more youthful tone. This, mixed with the erudite, well-researched, well-crafted writing, makes it one of the most rewarding reading experiences in America today. No matter what the topic, an article in the "New Yorker" will always be a shining example of language used to its best effect. Plus, I like the cartoons.
(PS - I weary of the "three F" -- fashion, food and finance -- reporting, but even if they overdo these subjects, it's still a great magazine.) (DJ Joe Sixpack)
Not for the West Coast 2007-09-24
If you like to read about NY restaurants, shows, gossip, and the New York Times is just not enough this is for you. If you don't care about NY and dislike the NYT the New Yorker is not the magazine for you.
I subscribed to this magazine for a year and really tried to like it, but it just did not work. Most of the stories are East Coast centric and fairly like minded when it comes to political and economic views.
One Amazon reviewer suggested The New Yorker is like a club, perhaps, but if you don't live on the streets of NY, it's a club you don't really care to join.
In no time flat! 2007-08-01
The first issue arrived in my mailbox in less than three weeks! The publication, of course, is great. Definitely snobbish, but covers a variety of topics and is extremely well-written.
Cancel Your Subscription? 
2008-07-17
**I've taken a drubbing over this review, but I won't delete it yet. My friend Jeffrey tells me the NY cover was intended in exactly the same spirit as my adoption of Hussein as a middle name. As anyone can see, I've been slammed by friends and strangers in the comments below. My wife wants her next week's New Yorker on schedule or my neck id in the noose. Fine. Probably I overreacted. This upcoming election is critical, and judging by the last, it won't be clean, forthright, honorable. Remember the SwiftBoaters? Here's what I wrote originally:
I've just done so. The July 21, '08 cover shows Barack Obama and his wife dressed as Islamic terrorists, with an American flag burning in the fireplace. It's tasteless and dishonest, and either ill-timed or politically motivated by neo-conservatism. The editors' excuse, that the cartoon was intended to satirize the talk-radio smear campaign against Obama, doesn't convince me at all.
The New Yorker has never shown much respect for the working folk of America, or anything but smug condescension toward rural and small-city people. Its market is obviously the intellectual upper 10%, plus those whose incomes allow them to suppose they belong in that category. Its editors make a point of being too near-sighted to acknowledge the Upper Midwest or the Pacific Coast. The advertisements tell who subscribes: Westin Resorts, Mercedes, Vanguard Financial, CitiBank, Dow Chemical. Its poems are quite often banal. Its famous cartoons are frequently funny, but more frequently smug and pretentious. Over the years, it has printed some immortal stories by Alice Munro, but it also prints crumpled scraps from the wastebasket of Joyce Carol Oates. Besides, I hate its three-column format, which slows my reading speed down by at least 25%.
Nevertheless I've subscribed for decades, though I often don't even open an issue until a friend alerts me to an interesting article. After all, where's the competition? The Atlantic has gone reactionary. Harper's is plodding. The political and economic journals serve a different function. Our "free market" publishing system has resulted in comglomeration and decimation, both in magazines and books.
Looks like this round goes to the internet.
The New Yorker -- Now With "Satirical" Lynching Photos 2008-07-14
With the New Yorker's newest "satirical" cover, I suspect that a certain magazine editor might just have satirized himself out of a job.
And as to "satire", isn't that what American Southerners used to call those postcards with lynching photos they sold down there?
New Yorker Review 
2008-06-04
Good magazine for contemporary articles. The poetry is pretty bad. The comics are very funny.
over 60 years of the new yorker 2008-05-04
I have been subscribing to the New Yorker for more than 60 years. Why stop now? It is excellent.
New Yorker rocks and Amazon made it easy 2008-03-21
I love THE NEW YORKER and wanted to give it as a last minute gift. It was easy and inexpensive with Amazon. This is the second subscription I've given through Amazon and will continue subscriptions through them.
