A Voice from Old New York: A Memoir of My Youth
In a world where privacy is increasingly passé,A Voice From Old NewYork may seem quaint. Auchincloss follows the traditional autobiographical form: confessions of petty crimes and sexual dysfunction and recollections of childhood education and upbringing, followed by his career as an attorney and a novelist. He relegates his wife and children to cameo appearances. As in his other works, Auchincloss is at his best as a detached observer and bemused critic of his East Coast upper-class society, though, as some critics note, a “note or two of snobbery is inevitable” in this somewhat self-indulgent memoir (Boston Globe). Despite its flaws, fans may still relish the final glimpse that Auchincloss offers us into a fading way of life, as well as wish to sample some of his other books about the manners of the Northeastern upper class.