Charm City: A Walk Through Baltimore

Crown Journeys Series

by Madison Smartt Bell

With a writer’s keen eye, a longtime resident’s familiarity, and his own sly wit, acclaimed novelist Madison Smartt Bell leads us on a walk through his adopted hometown of Baltimore, a city where crab cakes, Edgar Allan Poe, hair extensions, and John Waters movies somehow coexist. From its founding before the Revolutionary War to its place in popular culture—thanks to seminal films like Barry Levinson’s Diner, the television show Homicide, and bestselling books by George Pelecanos and Laura Lippman—Baltimore is America, and in Charm City , Bell brings its story to vivid life.

First revealing how Baltimore received some of its nicknames—including “Charm City”—Bell sets off from his neighborhood of Cedarcroft and finds his way across the city’s crossroads, joined periodically by a host of fellow Baltimoreans. Exploring Baltimore’s prominent role in history (it was here that Washington planned the battle of Yorktown and Francis Scott Key witnessed the “bombs bursting in air”), Bell takes us to such notable spots as the Inner Harbor and Federal Hill, as well as many of the undiscovered corners that give Baltimore its distinctive character. All the while, Charm City sheds deserved light onto a sometimes overlooked, occasionally eccentric, but always charming place.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Cities, History

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Madison Smartt Bell is a critically acclaimed writer of more than a dozen novels and story collections, as well as numerous essays and reviews for publications such as Harper’s and the New York Times Book Review. His books have been finalists for both the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, among other honors. Bell has also taught at distinguished creative writing programs including the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Johns Hopkins, and Goucher College. His work is notable for its sweeping historical and philosophical scope matched with a remarkable sensitivity to the individual voices of characters on the margins of society.

Reviews

[Lara]

I really wanted to like this book - it's about Baltimore, particularly parts that I know and love. The author, a noted novelist who also teaches at Goucher, takes a number of walks through different stretches of Baltimore - a walk down York Road from Northern Parkway to the Inner Harbor, a walk up Charles Street (which I do myself at least thrre times a week), a walk through Dickeyville (never did this one but it sounds fun). What bothered me was there were a bunch of factual errors - he mentioned streets crossing each other that are in fact parallel, he cites a local foundation's office being on he wrong street - things that would have been so easy to fact-check. It wasn't an awful book but it was disappointing.

[Audrey Babkirk Wellons]

First off, I'd just like to say: Is there anything Madison Smartt Bell can't do? He’s got a spoken-word CD, a trilogy about the Haitian slave uprising, a recent literary grant, and now a rambling tour of Baltimore that captures both his voice and a lot of the unseen charm of "Charm City." I lived in Baltimore for four years and in the nearby suburbs for four more; it was great to be reminded of familiar haunts, as well as discovering places I had never ventured. He mixes history and gossip and encounters with local characters almost seamlessy. It's been hard for me to find a decent (read: engaging) history of Baltimore, but Maddy Bell's recent jaunt comes damnably close.

[Chandra]

This book was published about 15 yrs ago, right around when I moved to Baltimore. I didn’t know what I was really in for, but the author literally walks the streets of Baltimore and tells you what he sees. I was able to follow along with the descriptions in my mind’s eye, but I wonder if it would be more interesting to someone who doesn’t live here. Also, a lot has changed in the last 15 yrs. Some interesting stories and history. Very white, male-centric perspective.

[Lani]

Picked this book up for my dad's Xmas present since he had really enjoyed his visit earlier this year. While I was waiting to be picked up, I started skimming the first few pages and got totally sucked in. I had to wrap up his copy, but fortunately Cristin had a copy herself.

Borrowed Cristin's copy and TORE THROUGH IT. I think my dad will love it.

The book is essentially a walking tour through some areas of Baltimore and includes the author's reflections, local history, and a lot of local flavor. He is joined on his walk by several locals, including Laura Lippmann, the author of the Tess Monaghan mysteries. He walks up the same stretch of Charles that I walked twice a day, and there haven't been all that many changes apparently.

The bits that the author walks through are fascinating and neatly described in all their glory - and lack thereof. He touches on little bits of Baltimore history that show some of the quirks of the city. Unfortunately, he spends more time than necessary on some things - his description of a Latin dance club comes to mind - and doesn't take a particularly extensive tour of the city. I don't think it's much of a travel guide, but it does give a feel for the mood of the neighborhoods he crosses through.

I was disappointed that he didn't make it through Hampden since I find that to be a particularly intriguing neighborhood that I'm sure has many interesting stories and factoids hidden under its kitsch. He also doesn't touch on the Painted Ladies - the Victorian houses so frequently photographed. In fact, there aren't photos in the book at all, which is a shame.

I did love this book, though I'll give it 4 stars since I don't think the execution was absolutely perfect. Still, highly recommended if you are new to Baltimore, like me, or like learning weird local history in a narrative writing style.

[Sarah]

Not bad, nothing special. He covers a lot of ground, mileage wise, but if you know the city, you see that he covered a fairly narrow swath of land. In walking down Greenmount and then up Charles, he hits most of the important architectural landmarks but misses some cultural ones. The series seems like it's designed to give you the hip insider's look, but MSB misses the mark a little. There's a little too much I-dared-to-tread and reliance on his friends' childhoods, and the lumps of history haven't been added to the present quite right. Entertaining from the perspective of someone living here, but I think if I were from elsewhere, this book wouldn't be much use.

[Ken]

CHARM CITY is a mile wide, but only an inch deep. The book is chock full of detail, but the areas that I really enjoyed didn't last long enough, yet the sections that did not interest me, seemed to go on forever. I realize that to profile an entire city is a daunting task, yet I felt that, in the end, I was overwhelmed by the blizzard of information at the expense of my interest.

Maybe the book would have been more accessible if he had shared his 'walking tour' with only one other person, and that character could have added a bit more focus. The author has a great writing style, and I plan to check out one of his novels.

[Chris Wharton]

Four walks, actually, two in corridors I have driven often (York Road/Greenmount Avenue and Charles Street), one less so (Fells Point, often enough for me but not so much surrounding neighborhoods), and Dickeyville, a rural enclave at the city’s western edge I have read about but never been to. Enjoyable read, learned a lot about city places, personalities, history, but distracted by what I thought were occasional errors and poor copyediting. Part of the “Walk through …” series from Crown Journeys (Edwidge Danticat through Jacmel, Haiti, and Chuck Pahalniuk through Portland sound especially interesting). A Baltimore Book Festival pick-up last September.

[Andrew]

Boring. Smartt Bell never captures my imagination for Baltimore. I realized quickly that this was not supposed to be a travel guide, but does he not want me to come visit there? History is always great and I found Baltimore's interesting. It was the antecdotes and personal history of his friends that really made me frustrated with this book. Furthermore, if I went to Gouster college and found out that my fifty year old professor walked around town in a denim jacket with french phrases ironed on the back I would probably drop his class.

[Alex Csicsek]

This is a nice little book but the style gets in the way of enjoying the read. It's at its best when it uses Baltimore's rich architecture as an excuse to go on tangents about the city's fascinating history or its cultural quirks, but this is interrupted by unnecessarily long passages which assure us readers that the author is a real cool guy who used to play jazz. As a homesick Baltimorean in a faraway land, definitely worth the read, but if you're still in town probably better off downloading a few on-your-own walk guides and hitting the streets yourself.

[Robin]

I "borrowed" this from Genevieve (yes, it was out on your end table) and kept asking myself why I continued to read it. I kept hoping that Bell would tell me something I didn't already know about Baltimore besides irrelevant details of his friends and acquaintances' lives. Gen did warn me, so I have only myself to blame.... I guess someone who knows virtually nothing about Baltimore might enjoy it. If they can get past Bell's self-aggrandizing style. Who edits this series?

[Sarah]

A bit disappointing, really. Bell's writing wasn't as engaging as in his biographies or novels. I'm not sure I want to walk with him (not that he's asking)--and he seems to stop FREQUENTLY for drinks!

[Mark]

It’s fine. Probably more useful if you are planning a trip to Baltimore. I thought the final chapter was out of place. And there’s a middle section where the writer is at a club watching his buddy’s band that was pretty boring and outside the scope of the overall book.

[Stephanie]

I kept thinking Bill Bryson could have done this better.

[Maureen]

I believe this could have done with a good editing but all in all it was interesting to read various tidbits about areas of Baltimore I know.

[Amy Houghton]

There was a bit too much of the author, when I wanted more about the city. It is definitely more like a guided walk bc of his commentary.

[Mycala]

I've put off reading this because I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it. Baltimore was the only place I had ever chosen for myself to live and I love that city. This book was written when I lived there. I have since left, and many of the places mentioned (Video Americain, The Crease..) closed long before I left. It is a reminder of the transience of life in general. Enough time has passed between leaving the city that I loved and called home and now for me to be able to process it without feeling maudlin.

The writer was either stupid or crazy to traverse some of these paths, particularly after dark, but this was an entertaining read. I was amused at his use of vocabulary, which I found pretentious at times, yet he did have some glaring grammatical errors. How can a professor of writing not know when to use between versus among, for example? But he seems pleased with himself and I suppose that's all that matters.

There were neighborhoods that didn't get any mention at all, which I suppose is to be expected, but there could have been more. It was a fun way to revisit a place that will always be a true love

[Michael Lewyn]

A mostly-interesting guide to Baltimore's neighborhoods, including many that are not very touristy. More information than I wanted to read about the author's friends and hangouts, but basically worthwhile.

[Bibliomama]

Great fun reminiscing. I started this book when it was first published, but set it aside for a bit. Picked it up again, started from the beginning, and this time enjoyed it.

[Tuck]

very nice addition to the crown journeys series Blues City: A Walk in Oakland you get lots of history of the city, interesting places to drink, eat, look at, dance at. a must read if one ever goes to charm city. gertrude stein went to school there, but that tidbit ties into the other book i read sunday, The Company They Kept, Volume Two: Writers on Unforgettable Friendships virgil thomson talks about stein and mentions these other folks from baltimore that i learned about in this book. round and round. for one of the murder capitols of north america this city has a tremendous amount of art, history, culture, education.
author too is not afraid to walk all over this smallish city, except the west side where he would be killed, oh and the east side where he would be killed too.

[Kyla]

I love this Crown Journey series - authors escort you through their city, history and personal stories coming together. Baltimore is on my radar now that I live 4 hours down the road from it, know some people who are from there and have obsessively watched The Wire. I have a fondness for cities that are the scrappy little sister and are full of blue collar bars and falling down factories (see: my love of Portland, OR). Planning a trip to see Baltimore, I thought I would read this rather than a traditional guide book. I have dog-eared a few sections but overall, this is a pretty rambling and dry account of the city. His organizational structure is pretty random and it can sometime read like a Google map directions - turn left on Elliot, right on Elm etc. Still, it should help make my trip a little more off the beaten path.

[Betsy]

This was a fun read for someone (like me) who likes to walk around in Baltimore. There are some interesting, obscure historical facts about the city that I didn't know about and the author made several observations that I found myself nodding in agreement with.

There were some smalltimore moments for me--he mentions the Glenmont Popes and my brother has played with them before--though I didn't know they ever had someone named Glen in the band. And in another chapter he talks about someone I went on one date with when I was 23.

I loved that he started out the walk on Greenmount, which I ALWAYS talk about as being the most interesting street in Baltimore, and then he went on a walk with my favorite local author, Laura Lippman, so that was also super fun.

I definitely recommend this book to the fans of Charm City.

[Jonathan Norton]

Bell takes a series of walks around Baltimore, the scene of his quite good 90s novel "Ten Indians". Because his perspective is at street-level he can only give us the sights and sounds to be found on walkabout, which mainly takes us to bars and restaurants and cultural spaces. He gives an historical commentary on the architectural changes, and he notes the economic trends of declining industry and urban gentrification. We don't get the full Wire panorama: schools are only briefly mentioned and the police aren't seen at all, though of course a wandering white man wouldn't experience them at their worse. This was written in 2006, so we can assume the main changes are that a few more businesses have gone defunct since then.

[Jaclyn]

While this was a good read for people who know and/or love Baltimore, I just didn't love it as much as I thought I would. Perhaps it was because Bell's walking companions were all pre-arranged and I feel that was, artistically speaking, an easy way out. Everyone knows everyone in Baltimore, it's not hard to make connections and arrange some quirky and quasi-famous tour guides if you've lived here for more than six months. A truly amazing journey would have involved some more chance meetings, new and unlikely relationships, and a true capturing of the everyday life and spirit of the city, not just staged meet-ups with people the author already knows.

[Spiros]

An amiable, inconsequetial stroll through diverse neighborhoods of Baltimore. While teeming with various odd bits of trivia, the book doesn't give one much feel for the place, possibly because Bell is not in fact a native, having only lived in Baltimore just over twenty years. One senses that any of his walking companions might have produced a more insightful account of the city. A confessed non-sports fan, it is nevertheless odd that Balmer's most famous son, George Herman Ruth, doesn't rate a single mention from Bell.

[Jennifer]

I'm not really sure how to characterize this book and am not familiar of the series it is in--"Walks Through Different Cities." I found the writing kind of quirky, in a bad way, and awkward at times, but as a former Balti-moron for seven years, really appreciated all of the random factoids and trivia about Charm City. Had I not lived there for as long as I did, the book would have held zero appeal for me. Only current and former Baltimoreans need apply...