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feedmesmores's review against another edition
5.0
A non-fiction love letter to NYC. Pete Hamill lives and breathes the city through his words. This reads like a novella but provides you with a textbook or two worth of history about Downtown Manhattan. Somehow reading this felt incredibly light and easy but I came away with so much knowledge of the history of the city I call home as well as an endless list of places to visit and revisit.
A must-read for anyone in or interested in NYC from the native to someone who has never been but yearns to know its streets.
A must-read for anyone in or interested in NYC from the native to someone who has never been but yearns to know its streets.
oceanlistener's review against another edition
3.0
In all of the reminiscences and personal history, parts of this book felt a bit self-indulgent. I would not have enjoyed it if I hadn't lived in New York City.
But I did live in New York City for a time, and I love the histories of places I've lived. I liked the unique bits of history for different regions of the city- some recent, some a bit more ancient. Many of the obvious bits are avoided in favor of lesser-known tidbits. It's a personal history, but it's also a personable history, and for that I enjoyed it. It also did not dwell on 9/11, as so many New York books do these days- very nice in that respect.
But I did live in New York City for a time, and I love the histories of places I've lived. I liked the unique bits of history for different regions of the city- some recent, some a bit more ancient. Many of the obvious bits are avoided in favor of lesser-known tidbits. It's a personal history, but it's also a personable history, and for that I enjoyed it. It also did not dwell on 9/11, as so many New York books do these days- very nice in that respect.
strickonaut's review against another edition
5.0
This book reads like a novel, traveling through New York City history, without being to dry.
davidwright's review against another edition
4.0
I am consuming this lovely little book in perhaps the best way possible, listening to the author read it (into one ear) as I stroll casually around the neighborhoods of lower Manhattan. To walk the streets of this city guided by a well-informed, loquacious native while at the same time enjoying that blessed New York anonymity: just heavenly.
edenseve63's review against another edition
4.0
When I was a kid there was a headline in the newspaper that read "Ford to city - Drop Dead". This was in the bad old days of the early 1970's when NYC was on the ropes financially. Diminutive Abe Beame was Mayor and they were seeking federal funds to bail out the city. It was a rotten time financially for everyone with inflation rising and job rates down. But things got better and NYC survived - and came back stronger than ever!
An historical essay that reads like a love note to Pete Hamill's beloved Downtown Manhattan from the tip of Bowling Green to Mid-Town. New York is perpetually in a state of change; new faces, new languages, new ideas, brought to it by people from every corner of the world. Beginning with the first Dutch settlers down on Wall Street, followed by the English who combined to become the Knickerbockers, who Henry James wrote about in his famous novel "Washington Square". It is about the Africans brought as slaves and came as freemen, affecting the culture in ways we are still discovering today. In the mid-19th century fleeing unstable governments came the Germans, who brought with them food and drink, we now come to think of as "American as Apple Pie" like Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and Beer. The Irish flooded New York in the 1850's fleeing poverty and famine. They were poor and often victims of anti-catholic prejudice. In the Five Points neighborhood they found themselves locked in they were surrounded by criminal activity and corruption. By the 1880's the Jews of Russia began coming through Castle Garden and Ellis Island in response to pogroms that followed the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. They were poor, generally uneducated and their co-religionist, the German-Jews and Sephardic Jews who had preceded them decades earlier found them to be "not of their class". They made their lives in the tenements of the Lower East Side and worked in the factories and on the pushcarts. Southern Italians and Sicilian agricultural workers seeking to better wages to bring home to their poor families came and went on a round trip business for a time before settling down near Mulberry Street and bringing their families over, and building a church. Chinatown was until the 1960's made up of Chinese men only, because the Exclusion Act kept them from bringing their families. Latinos fleeing repressive political regimes and poverty also began finding their way to New York following World War II. They moved up-town. They brought with them music and dance that changed the sound of the city.
Pete Hamill describes New Yorkers, whoever they are (Irish writers, Chinese Stockbrokers, Jewish Teachers, Italian Chefs, African Congressman, etc.)as one big tribe and on 9-11 he saw that was truer than ever. We get cynical, we leave, we live in a constant state of nostalgia, but we always come back. Whenever I'm flying and I look down at the New York skyline there is only one thought in my mind "home".
An historical essay that reads like a love note to Pete Hamill's beloved Downtown Manhattan from the tip of Bowling Green to Mid-Town. New York is perpetually in a state of change; new faces, new languages, new ideas, brought to it by people from every corner of the world. Beginning with the first Dutch settlers down on Wall Street, followed by the English who combined to become the Knickerbockers, who Henry James wrote about in his famous novel "Washington Square". It is about the Africans brought as slaves and came as freemen, affecting the culture in ways we are still discovering today. In the mid-19th century fleeing unstable governments came the Germans, who brought with them food and drink, we now come to think of as "American as Apple Pie" like Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and Beer. The Irish flooded New York in the 1850's fleeing poverty and famine. They were poor and often victims of anti-catholic prejudice. In the Five Points neighborhood they found themselves locked in they were surrounded by criminal activity and corruption. By the 1880's the Jews of Russia began coming through Castle Garden and Ellis Island in response to pogroms that followed the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. They were poor, generally uneducated and their co-religionist, the German-Jews and Sephardic Jews who had preceded them decades earlier found them to be "not of their class". They made their lives in the tenements of the Lower East Side and worked in the factories and on the pushcarts. Southern Italians and Sicilian agricultural workers seeking to better wages to bring home to their poor families came and went on a round trip business for a time before settling down near Mulberry Street and bringing their families over, and building a church. Chinatown was until the 1960's made up of Chinese men only, because the Exclusion Act kept them from bringing their families. Latinos fleeing repressive political regimes and poverty also began finding their way to New York following World War II. They moved up-town. They brought with them music and dance that changed the sound of the city.
Pete Hamill describes New Yorkers, whoever they are (Irish writers, Chinese Stockbrokers, Jewish Teachers, Italian Chefs, African Congressman, etc.)as one big tribe and on 9-11 he saw that was truer than ever. We get cynical, we leave, we live in a constant state of nostalgia, but we always come back. Whenever I'm flying and I look down at the New York skyline there is only one thought in my mind "home".
fadeintodawn's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book for a class, but would have enjoyed reading it in any circumstances. Hamill takes the reader on a walk through New York City, breaking up his chapters by neighborhoods or areas. This casual approach makes the big city feel comfortable and manageable. His personal stories, interwoven with the history and the development of each neighborhood, make for informative and compelling reading.
psteve's review against another edition
3.0
Good read if you are taking a trip to Manhattan. Hamill takes you from the tip of Manhattan up to about Times Square, with plenty of history of the city along the way, describing lots of buildings that are still there, as well as those that are gone, with lots of personal history as well. Good stuff, and a good source of places to stop and visit, some that you may miss otherwise. As the book goes on, it seems to be more of a list than the details that were present early, with lots of name dropping. Still, the personal history and those names were pretty fascinating. A good, fast read.
knittingdev's review against another edition
4.0
I don't like NYC, but I love Pete Hamill's New York City.
alundeberg's review against another edition
5.0
As a resident and a reporter, Hamill gives us an intimate look at the city that has been his mostly life-long home. Blending memoir with history, he peels back the layers of the city to show its importance in every age-- going back to the earliest Dutch settlements. His stories are varied as he tells of the city's lowest of points of drugs and crime to its heights as it refuses to be kowtowed by the events of September 11th, but all of the tales he tells are threaded with theme of nostalgia. It is hard to not be nostalgic in and nostalgic for a city that is constantly changing and in flux; each decade seems to bring something new in its architecture, art, theatre, activism, history, but as the new emerges, the old recedes, taking with it another little era of City life.
This is definitely the book to read if you love New York or planning a trip there. Hamill provides a much more personal look at the city.
This is definitely the book to read if you love New York or planning a trip there. Hamill provides a much more personal look at the city.
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