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The Receptionist

An Education at the New Yorker
DesPlainesReaders
Oct 22, 2012DesPlainesReaders rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
Janet Groth was a receptionist at The New Yorker for over 20 years before leaving for academia. If you're looking for insight or gossip on New Yorker fiction writers like J.D. Salinger, you won't find it here. (The exception--a chapter on Muriel Spark, who like many of the writers was fond of Groth.) Groth instead expounds on restaurants, her measurements and Ritz crackers, among other tedium. If you need a New Yorker fix, instead check out Life Stories: Profiles from the New Yorker, which includes an amazing piece by Henry Louis Gates about Anatole Broyard, the New York Times book critic who "passed" as white. LauraADPPL/WeAreSpartacus