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Best Books of the Year So Far
Looking for something great to read? Browse our editors' picks for 2015's Best Books of the Year So Far in fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, children's books, and much more.
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Best Books of the Month
Want to know our Editors' picks for the best books of the month? Browse Best Books of the Month, featuring our favorite new books in more than a dozen categories.
The gem of Manhattan is without a doubt, Central Park, and this anthology, edited by Andrew Blauner, is terrific. The vignettes offered by a wide range of authors provide a rich detail to what lies inside the walls of the park. Not surprisingly, many of them harken back to childhood memories of the park...especially places like the Central Park Zoo. In fact, many of them speak of the animals in the park, both caged and uncaged. All however, remind us of a time not so long ago (the 1960s and 1970s) when Central Park had fallen into disrepair and had become a dangerous place. Thankfully, those times have been turned around.
It's easy to fall in love with the animals. Ben Dolnick speaks of a favorite goat, Newman, that he used to tend. Susan Cheever's yak symbolized forbearance. And then there was the British "birder", Donald Knowler, who recorded dozens of bird species over a cold winter, mugged not only by humans but also squirrels. Some of the authors came from wealthy families and used the park for sports and mischievous refuge. The one contribution that really caught my eye was Paul Auster's "Fogg in the Park" which really captures the essence of danger, generosity and adventure all at the same time as he struggled to get by in the confines of the park as a "resident" for a while.
Strolling through Central Park is a lovely way to escape the bustle of the surrounding streets but these chapters mark reminders of what it is like to get to know the park. It's a wonderful collection and I highly recommend it.
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We "previewed" a few of the selections before giving the book to some NYC residents whom we had visited. On that trip we took our first walk along the High Line and were entranced by its dynamism. So we also bought High Line: The Inside Story of New York City's Park in the Sky by Joshua David, Robert Hammond for ourselves; and then ordered it for our friends, too!
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An interesting collection of Central Park fiction and non-fiction stories from a former Urban Park Ranger when the program started While a lot focuses on the bad ol' days of central park, there are some fun lighter reads about the "Sixth Borough" and catch and release carp. Not that much new for someone with even a rudimentary familiarity with the Park, but a good quick read
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It's reasonable to think that one might paint a rich picture of New York City using the park as its focus. Unfortunately, this collection is a little too uniform in its composition and a little too repetitive in its content to achieve that goal. Most of the contributors are white men between 40 and 65 years old who grew up on the Upper-West or Upper-East sides, and their experiences of the park are fairly uniform. So many of the stories collected here relate how gritty it used to be, and how it's cleaner now but in some ways they regret the loss of edge. I'm not saying that's a false experience, but it is an obvious one and it would take more curatorial artistry than is visible here to make it worth reading six times.
That said, many of the individual essays are excellent. The problem is context, they are forced to compete for the reader's attention with too many other similar pieces. Adrian Benepe's introduction was a surprise; he's the Parks Commissioner, but his piece was better written than some of those by famous novelists and essayists. Not so Doug Blondsky of the Central Park Conservatory, whose epilogue is comparatively cliched and leaden. Mark Helperin's essay, very polished, memorable. David Michaelis's essay about raising sons in the city told via their experiences fishing in the park was a beautifully crafted little thing. It is hurt somewhat by being followed by another piece that is similarly structured, but uses the catching of turtles in the park as its central metaphor, rather than the catching of fish.
Generally, the real reminiscences like that of Francine Prose or David Michaelis work better than the bits of fiction like Jonathan Safran Foer's unreadable (self-parody?).Read more ›
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This is a small book with 12 tales of Central Park, all by writers that have lived in New York. There is an introduction by Adrian Benepe, the commissioner of New York's Department of Parks and Recreation. He along with most of the other authors remember Central Park as a haven, and in many years one that was dangerous, dirty and run down. Most of the accounts also present the reassuring story of the Park's resurgence. There is a universal rejoicing at the rebirth of the Park from what it had been in the 70's.
Too many of the authors write "back then", or "in my childhood", or "years ago". It would be better and much more informative if we had more information to know when back then was. There is also a section in the back of the book with a description of each individual writer. It would allow for a better understanding of what had been written if the author's information was inserted with their story.
This is an interesting collection, especially for those of us that know Central Park, either as a visitor or a city resident and even those who have a fondness for the city itself and what this green space has meant to its citizens.
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