Can you recommend a good holiday read, set in New York/ USA

[whataboutbob]

Looking for something enjoyable and reasonably light for summer hols, so probably not Faulkner. Last year I read a novel by Emma Straub I think it was called modern lovers and that hit the right note. I’d also consider Lionel Shriver, haven’t read the Mandibles yet.
There are also some books written by Russian Jewish emigres to New York I was meaning to read, but can’t find authors’ names. Thanks for any help!

The Group by Mary McCarthy?

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.
God I love that book. If you haven't read it you are in for such a treat!

Douglas Kennedy is perfect holiday reading. Every book has a character who rents an apartment, sand and stains the wooden floors and paints all the walls white.

Also The Group - Mary McCarthy
Prep and American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Central Park West Trilogy: The Nihilesthete, Penthouse F, Charlie P Paperback – by Richard Kalich is great disturbing but probably not light.

Millicent, I’ve read The Group, it’s a great book.

Thanks Swedish Edith. I checked out the Douglas Kennedys online and was a bit taken aback by the covers- all of them so similar and screaming chick lit. It looked a bit like writing by numbers, so I’m not surprised they all contain someone who rents an apartment, sands the floors etc. Ouch that sounds very stuck up.
Will check out the amazing adventuresSlattern.

Have you read Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone. I loved it.

There's another book I loved but I can't remember the title. It was a female author and the title was something like "The Keys to the City." It was set in New York. That's not the title, though! It was about an apartment where tons and tons of people had the keys to it for many different reasons and then a crime was committed there. Can anyone remember it?

10 Great books set in New York: www.tripfiction.com/ten-great-books-set-new-york/

Oh, they're better than chick-lit - but the covers are terrible. The Moment is set during the Berlin Wall era and The Big Picture was made into a decent French film - L'homme qui voulait vivre sa vie.

Thanks Swedish Edith, I’ll give DK a try. I think my local library may have him.
Splatters, having read a review of Kavalier I think it might be just right for DS1, he loves that kind of story but in comic form, this could be the lead into solid text for him that I’ve been looking for!

Sorry that should be “ Slattern”.
I have ordered A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman.

Little Deaths by Emma Flint. Very atmospheric. And while not a cheery subject, it's not dismal ...

Several books by Beth Gutcheon are set in New York. The most recent is Gossip.

The Nest - Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney is set in New York

The Light we Lost by Jill Santano. It broke my heart though so possibly not what you’re after!

Jonathan Franzen The Corrections is one of my favourite books, not all in New York but about American (dysfunctional) family life. His others are good too but I've reread that one a few times.

For New York Jewish Jonathan Safran Foer - Here I Am (bit introspective middle class angst, but I enjoyed it!)

HollowTalk, would that be Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley?

Rona Jaffe's The Best of Everything is a popular novel of its time so maybe a bit too 50s chicklit, but not too stupid or fluffy and very interesting if as it seems you enjoy books set in earlier times (cf The Group, published 1963 set in 1933 onwards).

I echo the previous suggestion of Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Another older 20th century novel - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Maggie Smith - features a girl growing up in an Irish-American family.

I do realise you're looking for books written for adults, but The All of a Kind Family books by Sydney Taylor are about an early 20th century Jewish family in New York, and though the kids are born there the family clearly has a migrant background and there are other newly arrived characters, a "greenhorn" - new migrant from Russia/Eastern Europe.

Oh yes, it's Duplicate Keys! Thanks so much. I love Jane Smiley. One Thousand Acres was amazing.

I was going to say A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; it's by Betty Smith

If you're looking for work about the past then Mary Antin's biography The Promised Land recounts moving as a Russian Jew to Boston and later to New York in the late 1890s. Eikedee love the 'All of a Kind Family' stories too.

Just finished "standard deviation" (can't remember the author) its a bit like anne tyler but much funnier and more upbeat.

Thanks for all your lovely suggestions everyone. I really appreciate the thought that has gone into these recommendations and will print the lists out to take to the library. Will also post back after I’ve read A Replacement Life which I am really looking forward to.

am I too late?!
Edith Wharton / Age of Innocence for Old NY
Tama Yanowitz Slaves of NY / Jay McInerney Story of My Life for 80s NY
Jay Mc Inerney Brightness Falls trilogy for 90s-modern day NY

It too late at all. I love Edith Wharton, have read House of mirth, also Age of Innocence . Also like tama yanowitz I think slaves of New York was a reprise of House of Mirth? Do you rate the McInerneys?

I was going to suggest Slaves of New York. I loved that book...am off to re-read it.

Love the pursuit of happiness by Douglas kennedy