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57th out of 281 books
—
36 voters
Downtown: My Manhattan
by
Pete Hamill
In Downtown, Pete Hamill leads us on an unforgettable journey through the city he loves, from the island's southern tip to Times Square, combining a moving memoir of his days and nights in New York with a passionate history of its most enduring places and people.
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
November 8th 2005
by Back Bay Books
(first published December 1st 2004)
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I am such a sucker for love letters to New York City. I think that in some way it makes me feel more like a New Yorker when I can read these books and decode them on a personal level. I was attracted to the book because I work in lower Manhattan on a project that will necessarily permanently change downtown. I appreciate opportunities to place this project in the historical conversation and much commented on changing nature of the city. I also appreciate being able to bust out with fun facts abo...more
I don't usually recommend the non-fiction research books that I use to collect background information on whatever work-in-progress I have going on, mainly because I usually don't read them cover-to-cover. I often search the Table of Contents and/or the Index to read the sections pertinent to my research needs. This book, however, was so engaging in its historical information regarding Manhattan that I couldn't put it down. Mr. Hamil has a very readable style, and his choice of historical detail...more
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I tend to shy away from history books simply because I don't typically learn from repeat of dates, times, people or locations. They seem to all run together creating a massive mess of nothingness in my brain. It certainly was not the case with
Downtown My Manhattan
. Pete Hamill brought New York City to life in his writing of this book. A true love of the city that mirrors my own. A thousand pictures painted by the way he describes the creation of New York City, first as New Amsterdam and then l...more
I should have read this before traveling to Manhattan earlier this year. Or maybe made arrangements to have Pete Hamill guide me around the city! A great read, unbelievably detailed and informative. I really enjoyed the coda, in which he touches a bit upon Uptown and Harlem. As he points out, while he loves Uptown and particularly Harlem, he never really grew to "know" it, as one can only truly know a neighborhood by living there. It was a great way of summarizing just how and why he is so passi...more
In all of the reminiscences and personal history, parts of this book felt a bit self-indulgent. I would not have enjoyed it if I hadn't lived in New York City.
But I did live in New York City for a time, and I love the histories of places I've lived. I liked the unique bits of history for different regions of the city- some recent, some a bit more ancient. Many of the obvious bits are avoided in favor of lesser-known tidbits. It's a personal history, but it's also a personable history, and for th...more
But I did live in New York City for a time, and I love the histories of places I've lived. I liked the unique bits of history for different regions of the city- some recent, some a bit more ancient. Many of the obvious bits are avoided in favor of lesser-known tidbits. It's a personal history, but it's also a personable history, and for th...more
The reader might get the feel that Hamill was present for the Island's first immigrant arrivals and continues on to the present. It's like listening to a monologue he might be having as he walks the streets with a friend, pointing out various landmarks.
He picks out certain parts of Manhattan and tells not only of its history but about the people whose lives played important roles in the making and constant change in this district. He tells of many, many famous people including Jimi Hendrix and...more
He picks out certain parts of Manhattan and tells not only of its history but about the people whose lives played important roles in the making and constant change in this district. He tells of many, many famous people including Jimi Hendrix and...more
Lets just say that this book may have been single-handedly responsible with my fascination with the city of NY and at least partially, if not altogether, responsible for my moving here. I believe this memoir was written after Hamill got 'on the wagon'. I mention this because a lot of critics seem to believe his, and many other writers' best works, come during their hard-drinking days when all they seemed to have where a bottle and a notebook and pen in some dingy, dimly lit room in which to spil...more
Sleepless, I just reread Hamill's definition of the difference between nostalgia and sentimentality. He warns: "you can't be nostalgic about a lie." I wonder. Do we dream about a past we never truly experienced? Hamill calls that "sentimentality", which he sneers at, but I wonder.
If you love Manhattan, I recommend the tome to you. I read it years ago and here I am, rediscovering an important lesson.
But I wonder...
If you love Manhattan, I recommend the tome to you. I read it years ago and here I am, rediscovering an important lesson.
But I wonder...
I lived in a New York and this book brought me back to each street, building and block that I encountered. Pete Hamill does an excellent job at capturing the history of Downtown to modern day life. I feel more connected to the city after reading this book now that I know who John Jacob Astor is (Astor Place) and what the Bowling Green was originally used for. Great read, organized, and written with heart.
I read this book for a class, but would have enjoyed reading it in any circumstances. Hamill takes the reader on a walk through New York City, breaking up his chapters by neighborhoods or areas. This casual approach makes the big city feel comfortable and manageable. His personal stories, interwoven with the history and the development of each neighborhood, make for informative and compelling reading.
I liked this book a lot because it goes through - street by street - the evolution of NYC. I read this book, and I am taking it with me during our next trip so that I can take it to neighborhood by borough :) to really walk through the progression. I LOVED the story of the first sky scraper in NYC. GREAT. I wish I would have known the builders - they sound fun!
i have read pete hamill before and will continue....i very much enjoyed his relaxed style of writing in this book. it was as though we were sitting at a bar with a glass of wine chatting about growing up in new york in the "ole days". the historical tidbits and personal stories makes for a comfortable curl up on the couch read. hope you enjoy it as much as i did.
Beautiful book. Often a little rambling, the author sometimes indulges in long lists of celebrity sightings that enhance the ambiance for a time but then become a mannerism. But he knows New York, its past, and its very eccentric people, and he captures its spirit by weaving its history in with his own. I would have given the book three stars except for the penultimate chapter on the 1970s and the decline of Times Square. Hamill is able to describe a scandal of lawlessness and destitution with i...more
What a fluid style of writing, inserting history into his New York in an informative yet pleasing manner. He covers a hundred years of history, biography, geography, sociology, all the influences of the many waves of immigrants and their significant contributions. He holds your attention throughout. It made me wish I grew up in New York.
If you are a fan of New York City, you will enjoy this love letter to the Manhattan downtown by the author/journalist who has lived there most of his life. He mixes his experiences with the history of places in the "downtown"....those that are extant and those which have been lost through progress. Its a fun read but somehow sad to realize the wonderful buildings that no longer grace the area.
Pete Hamill is a newspaperman, and it seems to me that this book is a bit shallow as a result. He's very readable, but just a little superficial for my taste. Of course he admits right away, even in the title, that this will be just one person's take on the city, and in fact his knowledge of downtown people and places is fantastic. He gets into a little history, both of his own family and the general population that settled the area, from the original Dutch on down to the present. Also gets into...more
The book was poorly organized, so hard to follow. What I will remember is how several horrible areas of New York were cleaned-up and completely transformed from being dangerous places full of violence, gangs, and drugs to being parks, etc. It really gives you hope in these crazy times!
I was expecting a travel guide or at least more of a series of stories of his own about the places he frequented. This is more of a serious, in depth history of New York. It is a great book for someone interested in history, but it was not my cup of tea.
But I'm a history buff. Pete Hamill reminds me of me sometimes, and never more so than in this book, in which he just walks around downtown and tells stories of each building he passes. You can tell he really likes history, and so do I. Awesome.
If you were born and raised in Brooklyn or Manhattan, this book becomes part of you and if you haven't walked the streets he mentioned, you sure want to get out there and do so. He brings the history on downtown Manhattan to life and makes you value NYC more. Hats off to Hamill for this one.
An interesting mix of memoir, history, and critique about Manhattan, an area I know little of. Hamill is a good writer, though a bit repetitive (he should have just called the book "New York alloy"). Lots of insights, though the main theme is change.
I think I might have liked this more if I had read it versus listening on audio books. Nonetheless, Pete Hamill's love affair with New York is beautiful and honest. I always learn something from Pete Hamill's books.
This was great as audio, and now I'm looking forward to reading it in paper version for the first time.
I love New York, and reading this book makes me look at the city a little differently.
I love New York, and reading this book makes me look at the city a little differently.
I enjoyed this history of downtown Manhattan but felt like he could have omitted 50 pages. I really enjoyed reading about the early history of the island and how the city grew but felt like in the last third of the book, Hamill told the same story over and over.
This book was great. It was written beautifully and cohesively, with history and present woven together as he walks through Downtown Manhattan. Everything Hamill says is how I feel about New York.
Thanks pops.
Great book. Can't wait to live in NYC.
A scatter shot journey through time and the history all over lower Manhattan. All through the author's own authentic lens.
Great book. Can't wait to live in NYC.
A scatter shot journey through time and the history all over lower Manhattan. All through the author's own authentic lens.
Aside from his disappointingly sweeping dismissal of New York's current young population, this was a total gem. I loved the rest of the book so much that I'm willing to let it go.
I listened to this, and I learned a lot about the changing cityscape of New York, over the last century. Hamill clearly loves Manhattan, and that love is evident throughout.
I like pretty much everything this author has written, especially "Forever", and read this book for a couples book group. It was well written and I felt like I was walking along the streets of New York City with him. I grew up in Downtown Manhattan and it was nice to stroll along these streets again as well as learn some things about "Downtown" that I did not know. Next book of his that I want to read is another non-fiction by him - the one with Drinking in the title, his bio.
I loved the little secrets of Manhattan that I picked up from this book. They greatly enhanced my recent visit to NYC? And Pete Hamill's prose is lovely, almost poetry.
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Pete Hamill is a novelist, essayist and journalist whose career has endured for more than forty years. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. in 1935, the oldest of seven children of immigrants from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He attended Catholic schools as a child. He left school at 16 to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a sheetmetal worker, and then went on to the United States Navy. While serving in t...more
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“"The wanderer in Manhattan must go forth with a certain innocence, because New York is best seen with innocent eyes. It doesn't matter if you are younger or old. Reading our rich history makes the experience more layered, but it is not a substitute for walking the streets themselves. For old-timer or newcomer, it is essential to absorb the city as it is now in order to shape your own nostalgias.
That's why I always urge the newcomer to surrender to the city's magic. Forget the irritations and the occasional rudeness; they bother New Yorkers too. Instead, go down to the North River and the benches that run along the west side of Battery Park City. Watch the tides or the blocks of ice in winter; they have existed since the time when the island was empty of man. Gaze at the boats. Look across the water at the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, the place to which so many of the New York tribe came in order to truly live. Learn the tale of our tribe, because it's your tribe too, no matter where you were born. Listen to its music and its legends. Gaze at its ruins and monuments. Walk its sidewalks and run fingers upon the stone and bricks and steel of our right-angled streets. Breathe the air of the river breeze."”
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13 people liked it
That's why I always urge the newcomer to surrender to the city's magic. Forget the irritations and the occasional rudeness; they bother New Yorkers too. Instead, go down to the North River and the benches that run along the west side of Battery Park City. Watch the tides or the blocks of ice in winter; they have existed since the time when the island was empty of man. Gaze at the boats. Look across the water at the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, the place to which so many of the New York tribe came in order to truly live. Learn the tale of our tribe, because it's your tribe too, no matter where you were born. Listen to its music and its legends. Gaze at its ruins and monuments. Walk its sidewalks and run fingers upon the stone and bricks and steel of our right-angled streets. Breathe the air of the river breeze."”
“A half-century later, Mark Twain would say that the gold rush drastically changed the American character, ending the tradition of patient apprenticeships, the gradual mastery of self, talent, and money. Gold created the get-rich-quick mentality that has been with us ever since, most recently during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.”
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1 person liked it
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Nov 10, 2012 02:07pm