Customer Reviews

Eleven Stories High: Growing Up in Stuyvesant Town, 1948-1968

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an ex-New Yorker whose first apartment as a married woman was in Stuyvesant Town, this lovely memoir brought me back 28 years. The descriptions of life there matched and echoed what my husband and sister-in-law always told me, and reflected my experiences as well. The added attraction for me was that the author graduated from Hunter High School, my alma mater, her mother taught at Stuyvesant High School, where my husband attended, and the vignettes of my education at Hunter brought me back to Lexington Avenue and 68th Street in a way that only my own year book could. This is a beautiful piece of writing and I would encourage all with ties to New York and the places of Demas' youth to spend the time reading.

What an absolutely delightful book! THIS is what the childhoods were really like for most of us who grew up in the 40s and 50s. I grew up in suburban California but I still identified with the author in almost every emotion, every situation she describes, even though I had always thought those poor kids who grew up in the high rise apartments in New York were really missing out. Not true! I read a lot of memoirs, and I have to say I am so tired of DYSfunctional parents, DYSfunctional situations, etc. This book is like a breath of fresh air. I don't mean to imply that all was peachy keen, but the upsetting situations the author faced were not built into huge life happenings that she was going to take a lifetime to deal with. She had a good childhood. She made a good childhood for herself. She should be very proud of this book and I hope it gets more publicity so it won't be lost in the deluge of memoirs.

This charming memoir is more than a story about a particular place and time--it's a story about growing up, about living in a city, about American middle class life. Now, with Stuyvesant Town a hot item in the news, Demas's smart and accurate book has particular value to anyone interested in New York City's future. This is an important look at what's at stake now in urban politics, but at the same time it's a great pleasure to read--filled with wonderful details and written with humor and warmth.

I read this memoir after visiting the 1st Avenue neighborhood of Stuyvesant Town and becoming curious about what it would be like to live in such a place - especially since I've lived my entire life in the midwest. This memoir did not disappoint and proves that no matter what the circumstances of your childhood, if you're surrounded by loving and caring family you'll be just fine. Fathers and mothers of this generation were largely the same regardless of geography. Highly recommended, especially if you grew up in the 50s and 60s.

Well-written and thorough, this memoir offers a peak into life in the 1950s and 1960s through the eyes of a young girl.
Whether one lived there or not, or even during that time, the book captures the essence of how things were then, when everything was so much less complicated.
Highly recommended.

This book is wonderfully written. It tells a great story in amusing and moving detail of normal family life- the family life most of us had. The description of Stuyvesant Town is mostly accurate. I grew up there in the '70s and '80s and my family and many friends are still there. There are some details that are just wrong (or at least are wrong about the Stuyvesant Town of the '70s and '80s)and keep me from rating this a 5--the author's one sentence slam against Republicans notwithstanding. The residents of Stuyvesant Town mostly were Catholic , not Jewish as claimed by the author. ... I knew none who did. Overall, a good book about the relationship among a child and her parents. Stuyvesant Town residents, past and present, will appreciate discussions such as the longing for a dog in a place where cats weren't even allowed in apartments. Males who grew up in Stuyvesant Town will certainly wish they could read about Little League and playing sports in playgrounds 9 and 11, which is not discussed in this book. A good book.

I was excited to read this as I too grew up in Stuyvesant Town. It was disappointing. The author presented her experiences as indicative of all, and actually made some factual errors. For example she stated "the majority of residents were Jewish". It not only is untrue, but on the face of it would seem highly unlikely. Why would this development be so out of kilter with the population at large? She also indicated that most of the residents had cleaning women. Not to my knowledge, though I bet my mother and the mothers of my friends (and those of my 6 siblings) wished that were true. I may be nit-picking, but since I found the writing less than engrossing, I found the inaccuracies hard to excuse. It may have taken me back, but I kept wanting to ask the author what in heavens name she was talking about. It was unfortunate that the author didn't present this as her reminiscences rather than "the" story of growing up in Stuvesant Town. I suppose any of the many Stuy Town kids (or former residents) would enjoy a quick read of this, but it probably wouldn't be of much interest to anyone else.