I recall, as a fairly sheltered college student, traveling to New York City for the wedding of a distant relative. It hadn’t occurred to me that there could be neighborhoods in this crowded place of constant motion. When I supposed that it must get lonely living where you would never serendipitously bump into someone you knew, a cousin tried to set me straight by explaining that people frequent the same places and thus you would often encounter the same people. I don’t think I truly grasped what he was saying until reading The New Yorkers.
The inhabitants of a New York neighborhood, all with their different schedules and interests, find themselves becoming neighbors as their lives begin to intersect. The charm in The New Yorkers is definitely in the characters and Schine brilliantly juxtaposes the differing perceptions of one character against another. Her omniscient narrator often jumps from one character's perspective to another’s in the same paragraph, making it hard to follow who is where at times, but overall this is a charming story and will appeal to the mature lover of chick lit.