A review by audaciaray
St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street by Ada Calhoun

4.0

I went through a period of heavy reading of all the NYC history books I could get my hands on, but then I hit a wall where I felt like a lot of the info didn't give me anything new. But damn, this one is good - good enough that it will please me to put it in my book shelf next to Luc Sante's Low Life. This book, because of the years it spans, has a great mix of historical methods, including oral history in the more recent years. It also tied together my understanding of the East Village my dad lived in from the mid 50s through the late 70s, with my mom in the mix throughout the 70s, and the neighborhood as I discovered it for myself in the 90s.