Walking Broad: Looking for the Heart of Brotherly Love (Hardcover)

by Bruce Buschel (Author)
Key Phrases: Walking Broad, Broad Street, Bruce Buschel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
After living in New York for 25 years, writer Buschel returned to his native Philadelphia to explore the city from the perspective of a place of enchantment from his youth: Broad Street, a 13-mile stretch starting near the northern su-burbs and running through the squalor of North Philly to City Hall and along the theaters and hotels of Center City down to Little Italy. Block by block, mile by mile, Buschel explores how the street—and by extension the city itself—has changed since his youth, presenting fascinating glimpses of current Broad Street residents in action, such as the owner of a fast-food joint that serves hoagies and cheesesteaks. But Buschel also argues that nothing has really changed about the city's soul: to be a Philadelphian is to be perpetually mildly depressed and almost happy to be so, which affects everything from the city's politics (a steady diet of civic shame and invective) to sports (fans love to complain). This painfully honest and blunt memoir reveals how Buschel's love-hate relationship with the city is inextricably connected to his painful Broad Street youth: the death of his father when Buschel was three, his troubled relationship with his hard-working and hard-drinking mother and the abuse he suffered after being sent at age seven to a city boarding school for orphans. (Aug.)
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Review
"This is great fun -- jaunty, highly engaging. Very Philly....And we all have family members like this, shadowy memories lost in time forever. Okay, it made me wistful."

-- Tim Whitaker, editor, Philadelphia Weekly

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743292847
• ISBN-13: 978-0743292849
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #728,382 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stream of Consciousness Hack Job, August 1, 2007

By	Dewitt Brown "dcbfour" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Walking Broad is yet another contribution to the ever-growing literary genre that consists of gratuitous and unwarranted attacks against the city of Philadelphia. Sure Philadelphia has its faults, but Buschel focuses on Philadelphia's faults to the exclusion of its many merits. Any person who reads this book and lives in and loves Philadelphia will at some point have the urge to punch this hack in the gut.

Buschel's book is based on his hypothetical stroll down Broad Street which serves as a very loose framework for him to tie together an unending and largely unrelated string of hackneyed attacks that consist of an exaggeration of every Philadelphia stereotype ever foisted upon the city and its residents.

He is so consumed by his desire to attack Philadelphia, he even makes up facts. For instance, in to further his attempt to color Philadelphia with the brush of institutional racism, he writes that the Phillies - as the last all-white team in baseball - won the World Series in 1950. As any person who follows Philadelphia sports - he claims to be such a person - should know, the Phillies did not win a World Series in 1950. In fact, they won their FIRST and ONLY World Series in 1980.

Buschel plays fast and loose with facts about the City he claims to love in a naked attempt to exorcise his own personal demons left-over from a very, very troubled youth. Whatever his personal history, it does not justify the mean-spirited gonzo-journalism perpetrated by this garbage.

Sadly, people who are not familiar with Philadelphia will read this book and assume that the author has penned an accurate portrayal of Philadelphia. In their mind, this book will confirm the worst stereotypes Philadelphia has to offer. And that's just too bad. Because Philadelphia has a lot going for it - especially if the city could shake free from all the stereo-types foisted upon it by the likes of Buschel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just another slander of Philly, January 16, 2008

By	A. Smith "Always Buying Books!" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I truly don't know why the author didn't just say 'Philly Sucks' and be done with it. Why drag it on and on the way he did? I couldn't get past the 3rd chapter of this hatchet-job, lousy book. Hey Buschel, you owe me $18.00!!! What an utter waste of paper. Just Awful!!!

4.0 out of 5 stars Walkin' Philly, February 20, 2009

By	Goose from Manoa "goose" (Broomall,pa USA) - See all my reviews

If you are looking for a trip down the street of your memories and you are from Philly-especially from the North Philly,Logan,Cheltenham,Elkins Park of the 50's and 60's give this easy to read ,funny ,somewhat irreverent book a shot.My family is Irish Catholic from West Philly and we lived in an Italian neighborhood (49th & Thompson)so it tossed a bit of a perspective about a different(Jewish) ethnicity along North Broad.I could live without the Rizzo bashing and his liberal intonations on the evils of the white man ;but if this is what the author felt in his trek-so be it. All in all, a nice little book.Pick it up.