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".
I tend to shy away from history books simply because I don't typically learn from repeat of dates, times, people or locations. They seem to all run together creating a massive mess of nothingness in my brain. It certainly was not the case with Downtown My Manhattan. Pete Hamill brought New York City to life in his writing of this book. A true love of the city that mirrors my own. A thousand pictures painted by the way he describes the creation of New York City, first as New Amsterdam and then later changed to it's current majestic name. Hamill takes you through historical change after historical change that has shaped the greatest city on earth. His pure love of New York is so clear and magical just as New York is. I have been to New York several times (thanks to my Bestie Amanda) and while those visits were filled with wonderment of the Chrysler building, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station, Battery Park and many more places that have been engraved in my memory, while reading this book I realized that even though I have seen a lot, I have really only seen a little. Perhaps just the tip of the iceberg. I have always known that New York is rich with history but reading it has made me realize that I have missed some of the hidden beauty of New York that has shaped her. The streets we walked so many times mean so much more now that I know who has walked them before me. I would recommend this book to those who love New York, not just for shopping or the theater, but for all that is unseen. That is simply part of her passed but has in every way shaped her future and her present. A great read indeed. If for no other reason but to know how New York came to be the city it is today.
What do You think about Downtown: My Manhattan (2005)?
I had heard the audio book of "Downtown'' a few years back when I drove to the mountains of Southwest Virginia. From what I remember, the author Pete Hamill, the well-known raconteur of NYC, read it, and it was beautiful. This time, though, with my family going to NYC for a weeklong visit -- and staying in the East Village -- I wanted to read it and compare it the his audio book. It holds up better. I found I could pause over sentences and paragraphs and re-read them to catch Hamill's lyrical construction. I sure couldn't do that with the audiobook. It was like hugging air. The book, though, was like hanging with a good friend, not worrying about the clock or the time. Yeah, the book was worth it.
—Jeri Rowe
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.
—Ezzy
I can't get enough of this book. It makes me want to walk around New York and actually look up, down and all around -- just like a tourist, but one loaded with the historical New York of tap, the farmlands that became the grid of New York, publishers' row, the el, Bowery, Broadway, Stanford White, Times Square, and how the word "hooker" came to me. What this book does is not only give a depth and back story of New York but endear the reader to appreciate history in general. It makes me want to join my local historical society and read all about the streets where I now live...
—Erika
