Brooklyn Was Mine [Paperback]

Valerie Steiker (Author), Chris Knutsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2008

A tribute to New York City's most literary borough-featuring original nonfiction pieces by today's most celebrated writers.

Of all the urban landscapes in America, perhaps none has so thoroughly infused and nurtured modern literature as Brooklyn. Though its literary history runs deep-Walt Whitman, Truman Capote, and Norman Mailer are just a few of its storied inhabitants-in recent years the borough has seen a growing concentration of bestselling novelists, memoirists, poets, and journalists. It has become what Greenwich Village once was for an earlier generation: a wellspring of inspiration and artistic expression.

Brooklyn Was Mine gives some of today's best writers an opportunity to pay tribute to the borough they love in 20 original essays that draw on past and present to create a mosaic that brilliantly captures the quality and diversity of a unique, literary landscape.

Contributors include: Emily Barton, Susan Choi, Rachel Cline, Philip Dray, Jennifer Egan, Colin Harrison, Joanna Hershon, Jonathan Lethem, Dinaw Mengestu, Elizabeth Gaffney, Lara Vapnyar, Lawrence Osborne, Katie Roiphe, John Burnham Schwartz, Vijay Seshadri, Darcey Steinke, Darin Strauss, Alexandra Styron, Robert Sullivan

With an introduction by Phillip Lopate.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Knutsen, a senior editor at Vogue who's also worked at GQ, The New Yorker, and Riverhead Books, is the co-editor of Committed: Men Tell Their Stories of Love, Commitment, and Marriage.

Valerie Steiker, author of The Leopard Hat, is a senior editor at Vogue and has worked at Artforum and The New Yorker. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade (January 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594482829
• ISBN-13: 978-1594482823
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #593,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Can Go Home Again, January 31, 2008

By 

Gluntarne "Paterfamilias" (Woodstock, New Y ork) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brooklyn Was Mine (Paperback)

Having reached adulthood in the early 1960's after two decades in Brooklyn, I took to the 19 personal essays in this anthology like Pangloss, Candide and Joni Mitchell coming back to the garden. Ebbets Field, Coney Island, the St. George Hotel swimming pool, Prospect Park and more were remembered in pitch perfect tones by the writers. For the editors and the world-class contributing authors this book was unequivocally a labor of love, as all sales proceeds will be donated to Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, a community action group fighting the "Manhattanization" of Brooklyn. For readers who enjoy visiting the landscapes of childhood, Brooklyn Was Mine is a great bedside companion.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pastoral metropolis, March 18, 2008

By 

Jason A. Miller (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brooklyn Was Mine (Paperback)

I don't have great Brooklyn credentials. Even though I was born there, my parents moved me out of Ditmas Park just in time for my first birthday. I later spent two years on the fringes of Bensonhurst living under what was then the "W" (and is now the "D") train. In spite of my accent I am not nearly as Brooklyn as I'd like to be. However, being born in Brooklyn, the grandson of immigrants who came there and the son of parents who came of age there, I've always identified as "Brooklyn" and will never live too far from it.

"Brooklyn Was Mine" is a brilliant collection of essays about various aspects of modern Brooklyn life. The best of these are soaring examinations of how humans grow and form bonds in Brooklyn neighborhoods that more closely resemble small towns than big cities. The worst are merely too brief. For those who have roots there, this collection is a look back. For those who've never been there, it shows that Brooklyn is much more than its popular stereotype.

The best essays include:

-"I Hate Brighton Beach" by Lara Vapnyar, a look at a neighborhood that's so Russian in character it eclipses its mother country;

-"Reading Lucy" by Jennifer Egan", which examines the private letters of a young married couple during World War II and then poignantly wonders whether the writers may still be alive today;

-"Ruckus Flatbush" by Jonathan Lethem, an apocalyptic valentine to the word "fuggeddabouddit", with an introspective postscript -- both worthy of the author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude;

-"Eli Miller's Seltzer Delivery Service" by Emily Barton, a look at a uniquely Brooklyn industry now in its twilight;

-"Brooklyn Pastoral" by Darcey Steinke, which shows us that Central Park is not New York City's only urban paradise;

-"Diamonds" by Colin Harrison, an inventory of youth baseball fields that's already one of my favorite baseball essays of all time;

-"Bridges" by Joanna Hershon, in which the author investigates a family legend involving her immigrant grandmother and the Brooklyn Bridge;

-"A Windstorm in Downntown Brooklyn" by Robert Sullivan, a look at the whirlwinds of Court Street which is so vivid that it conjures up some unpleasant smells even to this reader a continent away;

-"A True Story" by Darin Strauss, which, as any Brooklyn collection must possess, is about the Dodgers; and

-"Home At Last" by Dinaw Mengetsu, in which one of the next generation of Brooklyn immigrants describes how he came to find a sense of community in a place called Kensington.

None of these essays are very long, but they're all powerful. Like Brooklyn, they're made up of a diverse group of personal stories told by a diverse group of writers; like Brooklyn the borough itself, "Brooklyn Was Mine" is much more than just the sum of its parts.

4.0 out of 5 stars I left my heart in Brooklyn, February 2, 2012

By 

Christine R "Christine" (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Brooklyn Was Mine (Paperback)

I may be partial to anything Brooklyn because I love it. But these short stories really give you a glimpse inside personal accounts of everyone elses memories, hopes and dreams. Truly personal and a tribute to the GREATEST borough in the world ;)