A review by alundeberg
Downtown: My Manhattan by Pete Hamill

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.