Customer Reviews

The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts and How They Get You Through the Day

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Expecting a rehash of many of the now famous concepts of the "New Urbanism", I delayed actually reading this book for a long time. When I finally did it knocked me for a lovely, dizzy, exciting loop! Oldenburg may have put his finger directly on the reason why life in modern America has such an un-balanced, edgy, distressed feel to it. Bad planning! 50 years of letting officials and corporations extinguish our corner taverns, drugstores and other hang-outs has resulted in the extinguishing of our public lives. Something that work and family simply cannot compensate us for. And Oldenburg makes his surprisingly compelling case for these humblest of structures in a refreshingly brash, cranky tone. I began reading this book because of a certain technical interest and ended with my view of American life being, perhaps forever altered.

When was the last time you walked to your friendly, neighborhood tavern to shoot the breeze with the regulars? Oh, that's right. There is no such place. Find out why you'd be happier if there were.

I had a hard time finishing this book. It has one good point: suburbs, by design, destroy the cohesion of communities. The author repeats this point (in my opinion) ad naseum throughout the book. He also idealizes community meeting places (the tavern, the drug store, main street) from the past. Nonetheless, I still think that we should all read this book. It gives at least a few hints about why we never see some of the people who live only two doors down form us. His solutions also might help us break down the isolation and anonymity of the 'burbs.