New York Books

This is a calendar I will enjoy everyday, and I knew I would when I ordered it. Fra Angelio is a featured artist of The Met this year, but they were out of the calendars when I ordered, so I was very happy to find that Amazon had it. The pictures selected for this calendar are beautiful, and provide daily inspiration, though painted by this Italian artist about 800 years ago.

This is much more than a coffee table book because of the extensive coverage of the artist: his life, his contemporaties, influences on his style and his influence on the styles of others. The lavish illustrations in glorious color emphasize the other-worldliness of the subject matter.

This beautiful book, published in conjunction with the first major exhibition of Fra Angelico's work since the cinquecentenary exhibition of 1955 in Florence, will feature more than seventy paintings, drawings, and manuscript illuminations covering all periods of the artist's career, from round 1410 to 1455. Also included will be fifty selected works by his assistants and losest followers.

Fra Angelico ("the angelic friar"; ca. 1390/95-1455) was one of Renaissance Florence's leading painters. In addition to his celebrated altarpieces and frescos in Florence, Fiesole, Cortona, Perugia, and Rome, Fra Angelico also completed many masterpieces on a small scale. His predella panels, the small narrative scenes included beneath large altarpieces, are among the most innovative creations in fifteenth century Florence, while his images of the Virgin and Child still retain the inspirational immediacy and presence that first secured the artist's reputation as the premier painter of his age.

Research undertaken in the last fifty years now allows scholars to reconstruct a more historically reliable biography of Fra Angelico that goes beyond the legends and traditions to establish his position not only as one of the greatest masters of the fifteenth century, but also as one of the most intellectually accomplished painters who ever lived.

This book is an up-to-date, and comprehensive, look at the sublime works of one of Renaissance Italy's greatest masters.

FRA ANGELICO may be a museum catalogue for the current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, but it is also one of the more impressive historical documents on this important painter and his influence on the world of art in the library today. The book is a masterwork of scholarship and visual examples of this 15th Century artist.

Words fail in describing the degree of integrity of scholarship of the contributors. Under the curatorial guidance of Laurence Kanter the museum has gathered seventy-odd paintings, drawings and illuminations from books by Fra Angelico, and then to add to the dimension of the great master's influence, they have added some fifty works by his students and disciples. While Fra Angelico shines in his extraordinary sense of detail and representational art in a period when art was flattened decor and just entering the blossoming of the Renaissance, the works included by his pupils are quite staggeringly beautiful. Some would say comparison to the master is unfair: history offers another vantage, that being the concept that the truly great teachers enlighten their pupils to exceed the teacher's creations!

While the visual components of this fine book are incomparable, the various written sections by not only Laurence Kanter, but also by Pia Palladino, Magnolia Scudieri, Carl Strehlke, Victor M. Schmidt, and Anneke de Vries not only inform - they also read like a novel of the life and times in 15th Century Florence. In every way this is a magnum opus that represents well the Museum's exemplary exhibition of the work of Fra Angelico. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, October 05

Hession and Pickrel have written a wonderful story about Frank Lloyd Wright AND New York City's Plaza Hotel and Guggenheim Museum-- well researched and terrific photography. It sits on my coffee table for others to enjoy (full disclosure - Ms. Pickrel is a really good family friend). Check out another great review of their book.

AIArchitect -February 1, 2008

BOOK REVIEW
Frank's Last Stand
Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959, by Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel (Gibbs Smith, 2007)

Reviewed by Garo Gumusyan, AIA

Summary: Frank Lloyd Wright, the suave, romantic playboy, at 85 years old, has one last mission--to seduce that faithless woman of a certain age, New York City. She has been on his list for a long time. This time, though, he will do it his way. Everything is meticulously planned ... down to the Plaza Hotel's Suite # 223, which Wright will completely make over; for Christian Dior's previous "inferior desecration" of the room simply will not do.

The time is the `50s, and New York City, the object of his desires, is getting a major make-over--International Style. And who are the ones busy reshaping the grand corporate headquarters that line Park Avenue? None other than the Mies van der Rohe-clones, for whom Wright has nothing but contempt!

Two avenues west, ensconced in his Plaza suite, Wright, anointed the "greatest architect of all time" by House Beautiful, sits stewing, yearning, waiting, having yet to build a single structure in the burgeoning post-war Capital of the World.

This is the dramatic setting for Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel's recent survey of Frank Lloyd Wright's time in New York between 1954 and 1959. As their story unfolds, Wright, the aging playboy, has one more trick left up his sleeve, the magnificent Guggenheim Museum, which would indelibly leave his mark on the city he loved to hate.

Hession and Pickrel are terrific storytellers and they know their subject well. Along the way, we discover little gems such as when Marilyn Monroe comes to Suite # 223, without then-husband Arthur Miller, to privately discuss a house they were planning to build together in Connecticut. Wright, sensing his opportunity to be with the starlet alone, asks his secretary to take his own wife out shopping.

Wright wasn't always so smooth for "when he ordered his favorite spirit, Old Bushmills, neat, the waiter usually incorrectly delivered his Irish whiskey in an ice filled glass. Wright would pick up a spoon ... lift the cubes out one by one, and proceed to flip them across the green carpeted floor, to the astonishment and pleasure of the other patrons."

Insightful little stories like these illuminate this late yet significant period in the American master's life. This is a cleverly written book and delicious read. Which raises the question: A half a century has passed since his death, why hasn't there been another Wright? What does this say about the current American Architecture? Makes you reach for that Old Bushmills. Neat.

REVIEW: The Atlantic Monthly, June 2008
Frank Lloyd Wright in New York
by Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel (Gibbs Smith)

The Frank Lloyd Wright who emerges as the bon vivant starchitect of this Manhattan tale retains the pluck of the upstart Prairie School designer, only with a more obsessive bent. The authors cast the Guggenheim as Wright's foil: the museum-as-ramp that became both the aesthetic driving force of his life and a symbol of his relationship with the city, something welcoming and discomfiting all at once. In near-breathless depictions, Wright's live-in suite at the Plaza Hotel takes form as a veritable Algonquin Round Table in the sky, a whirligig of visiting celebrities, lawyers, scholars, and architects that mirrored the excitement of the museum being erected on the ground below.

I have read many books and articles about Frank Lloyd Wright and seen much of his work in person. His work no matter how familiar creates an excitement in its modernism and feel for space and is of course iconic. But, this book is more than just a book about Frank Lloyd Wright--it is a luxurious tour of New York in an era of glamour and excitment. It is about Wright in the context of that New York experience. Both New York and Wright compliment and inform the other making the book fascinating reading for both the history of the city as well as the story of the man. For those of us who grew up in New York and remember the days of lunch with gloves, dreams of growing up to go to the 21 Club it evokes memories of a time long gone but not forgotten. Wright become part of the city and even his huge ego and brilliance can't minimize the landscape he finds himself in. I read the book quickly--it was beautiful, engaging and a find. A perfect gift for those that either love architecture and Wright, New York City in its glory---or best case--for those who love both! Dr. Pat Gill Webber, New Hope PA/Tucson AZ

The legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright has had many books written about his long life. This book looks at that part of the last years of FLW's long life during which he supervised the construction of the Solomon R.Guggenheim museum in New York City. The Guggenheim project had been in the planning stages since the early 40's with Wright having an extensive correspondence with Solomon Guggenheim and his "non-objective" art advisor, Hilda Rebay. Rebay was the art dealer that first convinced Guggenheim to create as museum as a monument to his memory. "Frank Lloyd Wright: The Guggenheim Correspondence" is an entire book devoted to this correspondence; it also touches upon the period about which this book is written. This book looks at the period 1954 - 1959. Wright died April 9, 1959 in Scottsdale just a few months before the completion of the Guggenheim museum.

The book is a 160 page quarto printed on glossy paper. It is illustrated with many photos I've never seen before of Wright in his Plaza suite, at the Guggenheim construction site, and at various other places in the New York area. The book uses a vert small font (6 or 8 point?) which makes it hard to read in poor light. I had to set the book aside to read it in a brightly lit room, it was too hard to read by a dim nightstand bulb.

FLW spent money freely even when he didn't have it. In order to supervise work on the Guggenheim he chose a corner suite at the luxurious Plaza Hotel at the corner or Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue South, decorating it according his own tastes. He spent less than a week per month in New York during the years of construction but insisted on living in a grand style while there. The site of the museum itself on Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile was similarly chosen to impress; Guggenheim and Wright earlier rejected a site in Fort Tryon Park near the Cloisters as being too far away from the fashionable parts of Manhattan.

There are fascinating sections that detail FLW's television appearances while in New York; he was interviewed by Mike Wallace, appeared on "What's My Line," and several other shows.

Wright sought other design work while in New York. He designed a luxury Park Avenue car dealership interior as well as a home for that dealership's owner. A home in Staten Island (still in existence) built to his "Usonian" standard is the only Wright private residence in New York City. Wright found that his design ideas were at odds with the glass box office buildings of the International Style that were then in favor.

There is a another interesting section that details several meetings with Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller to plan a dream house for some acreage they owned; the house was never built and their marriage was soon in dire straits.

I have read several books about FLW in recent years and was pleased to find that this book contained information and photographs I hadn't seen elsewhere. This makes this book worthwhile and highly recommended despite its relatively narrow focus.

I bought this book, after it came out in 1993, from a terrific "retro" collectible shop in the Century City shopping center called "Raffia", which tragically exists no longer.

I don't remember why, but for some reason, I decided at the time that I would not actually open up the book and read it until after the Giants won a World Series.

Eleven years and a lifetime of heartbreak later, I realize that the Giants will win a World Series on the day after the Messiah comes riding into Jerusalem on a white donkey, blowing his shofar.

I recently found the book again and realized that I would never get to read it if I actually waited as long as I had originally intended so I just finished it.

One of the reasons why it's an interesting read is because it's written at the dawn of a new age in Giants history - on the heels of the aborted sale and move of the franchise to Tampa Bay, Florida and the subsequent purchase of the contractual services of one Barry Lamar Bonds. So you can probably take almost all of the franchise batting records that are listed at the back of the book and throw them to the wind.

And speaking of the wind, the book also predates by a few years the relocation of home field from Candlestick Park - termed by Bruce Jenkins as "the great wind machine" - to Pacific Bell Park in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Candlestick Park was much maligned as a baseball field in its time, but it looks quite magnificent in the photographs that the authors include in the text. And as they point out, it held up to the 1989 Series earthquake. Fans and reporters who diss Candlestick today are weather wimps and ingrates.

The book is a retrospective of Giants history starting in 1885 from their magnificent beginning as the New York Gothams ("My big fellow! My Giants!", owner Jim Mutrie is supposed to have triumphantly exclaimed, according to legend, after one particularly satisfying victory) to the glory days in the first 30 years of the 20th century under Manager John McGraw, King Carl Hubbell, Bill Terry, and Mel Ott to the lean years of the 1940's when the war depleted their roster to rebirth and redemption in the 1950's - courtesy (in large part) of Leo Durocher, Bobby Thomson, and Willie Mays - even as economic considerations were moving both the Giants and their historical rivals, the Dodgers, inexorably away from New York and toward the West Coast.

The 1950's might have even been more glorious on the field if the Korean War hadn't exacted two years of military obligation from Willie Mays and if Monte Irvin hadn't broken his leg in a pre-season 1952 exhibition game.

The book also captures the empty glory of the Giants San Francisco history - a lot of great teams; a lot of great players; a lot of close calls and nothing left at the end of any season but a collapsed one-horse shay. The authors perfectly summarize the history of the 1960's Giants with the observation, "It may be that no team has ever had so much talent and worked so hard and come away with so little to show for it".

Little did the authors know that, ten years after they wrote those words, they could be recycled to describe the Giants of the 1990's and 2000's. The substantive questions that they ask at the end of the book about the team's future can now be answered, "No."

The book's feature point is its collection of historical photographs, including, for example, a 1914 Cracker Jack card of Christy Mathewson, an art deco photographic cover of the 1933 World Series (Giants-Senators) program, and a 1952 program, on the cover of which Durocher reads to a cherubic Giant player the story of "The Little Miracle of Coogan's Bluff", and much much more. Having this book is the next best thing to owning your own souvenir shop.

As for the writing, it is flawed in some instances and brilliant in others. The description of the end of the 1962 World Series is so agonizingly good that I can't read it again. On the other hand, the authors several times commit the Giant mistake of saying that the team almost moved to Minnesota in 1976. While the relocation of the Giants and Dodgers to Minneapolis and St. Paul had been considered in the 1950's, in 1976, Minnesota was (and still is) barely able to support the Twins, let alone a second major league team. It was Toronto that the Giants almost moved to, having been tentatively sold to LaBatt's Brewery. LaBatt's eventually bought the Blue Jays, who would bring two world championships to the city of Toronto. It makes one think.

And while 1974-1985, as the authors say, was almost entirely a dismal chapter in the team's history, the one exception to that was the scrappy band of overachievers, led by Vida Blue, Jack Clark, Willie McCovey and Mike Ivie that made a serious run at a vastly more talented Dodger team in 1978. If John "The Count" Montefusco (for accuracy's sake, his nickname contained one letter too many) could have replicated his 1975 and 1976 performances in 1978, the team could have pulled it off. Failure to even mention the 1978 team is a glaring omission (there is one 1979 photograph of Jack Clark sliding home).

Failing to mention the 1982 team -- the one that contended into the final week of the season and ultimately took away (thanks largely to Joe Morgan) the satisfaction of playing "spoiler" to the Dodgers -- was also a glaring omission.

And - it's not the authors' fault - but while Will Clark's place in Giant history of the late 1980's must be acknowledged, referring to him as a possible future Hall of Famer now seems laughable in retrospect. And his endorsement of the book on its back cover - "This is a must for all Giants fans, past and present" - turns out to be a bitterly ironical demerit.

Some of Slick Will's more cynical critics now wish that he had taken more of an interest in the Giants during the last season that he played for them.

THIS BOOK IS GREAT FOR ANY BASEBALL FAN. THE PHOTOS AND OTHER MATERIAL USED TO SHOW THE HISTORY OF THE GIANTS IS OUTSTANDING. I THINK THIS ONE OF THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ FOR MEMORIES AND HISTORY OF THE BELOVED GIANTS. READ IT YOU WON'T BE SORRY

This book is a must read for any fan of the greatest team in baseball, the San Francisco GIANTS! Beautifully orchestrated, full-blown color photos and fantastic stories of the Giants rich history dating back to Coogan's Bluff.

If anybody knows how to contact Bruce Chadwick or David M. Spindel then please forward their contact info. right away. (650.988.9290) or ryan@altoscan.com

This is a great book if you're into Baseball history. Instead of illustrations, the stories are accompanied by photos of actual artifacts from this great game! A must for any baseball fan!

Eva Kollisch's memoir captures the heady rush of belonging to a revolutionary movement dedicated to creating paradise on earth. Her poignant descriptions of finding herself, her painful self-doubts, her searing disillusionment with her comrades, and her final liberation, brilliantly capture the history of many idealistic youth. In addition, Kollisch's horror at the opportunistic sexism rampant in a movement claiming to be founded on equality is particularly timely. Highly recommended.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends GIRL IN MOVEMENT as an elegant, articulate immersion into the life & times of a young Jewish refugee immigrant living in Staten Island & yearning for purpose & companionship, & finding it within the fiery & dedicated members of a small Trotskyist political group that met in downtown New York.

It's about the rhetoric, the manifesto & working the words of revolution & socialism & is a topnotch, A1, erudite memoir of coming of age during a time most everyone has forgotten -- the politics of Labor in America during WWII.

It's all about outsiders & hell-raisers, passionate prophets & ardent acolytes, & one strong young woman who put her money where her mouth was. GIRL IN MOVEMENT will satisfy & entrance.

Don't be put off that the publishers haven't figured out how to get the cover up on Amazon -- GIRL IN MOVEMENT is an excellent memoir not to be missed, about a fascinating time in the lives of one group of the Greatest Generation.

Amy Swerdlow's review leaves little to say about this wonderful book. Kollisch's simple and direct writing snuck up on me. Without knowing it was happening, by the time I got to the end of the book I was completely captivated by this young woman and her world. I had experienced it all and knew her well: her adolescent yearning for connection bumping up against her need to be true in her personal relationships to her vision of a better world; her place in the history of urban America and one passionate approach to the quest for justice for immigrants and workers.

This memoir of a young woman's courageous search for a theory and a practice of achieving world justice and personal liberation is a moving coming of age adventure story, as well as a delightful and profound contribution to radical and woman's history. The author is,in the late 1930s a teenage refugee from fascist Vienna, a lonely high school student living with her parents on provncial and conservative Staten Island. She discovers a radical socialist sect in her community that speaks to her utopian vision and her need for friendship. She eventualy beomes involved on the highest levels of "the movement, but finds that its fundamentalism violates her need for freedom of thought and life. Kollisch's touching and complex relations with her fellow workers in a Detroit truck factory where she is sent by "the Party" to recruit workers for the imminent socialist revolution,and her wry depictions of the debates, contradictions and cross purposes exhibited at party conventions as well as her observations on love, sex and gender, of which there are many, is narrated with a true ear for the humorous, the authentic and the meretricious. Amy Swerdlow, Sarah Lawrence College Emerita

THE GIRL IN THE FACE OF THE CLOCK glitters with intrige, captivating characters and the unique voice that sets Charles Mathes apart form other mystery novelists. I was hooked from page one, seduced by the engaging prose and irresistable players who people the shadowy world of the story. It's a page-turner, but my advice to the reader is to savor the words and garner the complete experience of this astonishing journey. In the author's competent hands, we travel with the heroine, Jane Sailor, from Cincinnati to New York, Seattle, and London as she attempts to unearth her family's secrets. Who was behind her artist father's tragic "accident" which put him in a coma eight years ago? And what is the connection, if any, to a family heirloom, a hideous ceramic clock? The asborbing story, seamlessly woven with irony, wit and cosmic insight, also includes a lesson about rare, valuable clocks that would make "The Antiques Roadshow" producers salivate with envy.

Excellent writing! This is the best "Girl" book yet.

While working at a Cincinnati repertory theater, dance choreographer Jane Sailor received the call she has been expecting ever since her father, a promising painter, fell down the stairs of his Manhattan loft into a coma. When Royamume Israel Hospital in Long Island finally called she expected to learn her beloved dad finally died. Instead, due to an accident, he has begun talking though still unconscious. Even if he is rambling, Jane must see him.

At the hospital, Jane realizes that her dad is mumbling something about his fall being not an accident. She takes a job with Perry Mannerback who once bought a painting that Jane's dad did. When her father finally succumbs under questionable circumstances, Jane concludes that the clock in the portrait Peter bought is the key to her father's death. Though alone and with no sleuthing experience, Jane is determined to learn the truth behind her father's fall and his death.

The latest stand-alone "Girl" novel, THE GIRL IN THE FACE OF THE CLOCK, is simply fantastic. The story line requires an acceptance stretch, but readers will gladly do so as the amateur sleuth invades the impenetrable art world. The characters including the comatose Aaron make the plot work as readers root for Jane to learn what really happened without suffering further harm and also make it with the "Boy" on the plane to London. Charles Mathes fourth "Girl" novel is an interesting tale.

Harriet Klausner

Just like it is hard to pick my favorite child, it is also hard to pick my favorite 'girl' book. Let me say, this book is fantastic! Not wanting to give away a possible spoiler, I must say Jane Sailor's job is most interesting and skills unique to this job are woven throughout the plot. Intrigue in the art & antique world, the mysterious death of Jane's artist father, puzzles and romance combine to make this a book you will read in one sitting. You will be charmed by a real Valentine too.

Charles Mathes has a magical way with words. He can also discuss serious issues in a deep & concise manner. For example, when Jane's father had a serious fall and went into a coma, Jane had come home from college and 'gone through the horrible process of American medicine in a state of panic and determination, barely able to . . . articulate the decisions that had to be made. Many nights she had just sat by his bedside weeping, overwhelmed by it all'.

Do read this wonderfully witty book!

I've never been to London, but after reading Charles Mathes' latest mystery, The Girl In The Face Of The Clock, I believe I could successfully navigate the city with my eyes closed. You see, the protagonist, Jane Sailor, takes a very important side trip to London, and while Mathes guides us through the twists and turns of characters and plots, he also gives us a guided tour of one of the world's great cities. In fact, one of the supporting characters lives in the neighborhood where Jack the Ripper became infamous. Having read all 4 of this author's works of fiction, this may be the best one yet (and they are all excellent). What distinguishes Mathes from many popular authors is his ability to create characters and objects that are simultaneously on the fringe of credibility and completely credible. Very few authors out there really accomplish this effectively, but it makes for very interesting and thoroughly enjoyable reading. I read this novel partly on a long train ride, partly on the long train ride back, and partly at home; by page 50 or so you won't want to put it down. The mystery is solvable, but you won't solve it. And that's the way it should be, as Mathes takes you the reader on a wild ride from New York, to Seattle, to London, and back to New York. How does the clock enter into things in this book? Read it and find out!

Like another reviewer, I find it hard to put this book down.
It is frankly and beautifully written in a way that puts the reader in the back of the Rolls Royce with Abby Rockefeller and behind the desk with Edith in her Greenwich village gallery.

I am only half way through the book and am savoring it thoroughly for the ride that it is taking me on: I feel like I walked the construction site of Rockefeller Center,toured Radio City Music before the first Rockette,
and participated in persuading Mayor LaGuardia to put a subway stop at Rock Center....

Fascinating and excellent read.

Fascinating bio and first rate discussion of the strange intersection of high-art and commerece. Shows how much artists owe to the people who support and believe in them.

The title here is just a little bit misleading. Yes Edith was the girl with the gallery, but there were a lot of girls that had galleries. What Edith built was THE Gallery, at least so far as modern American art was concerned. Furthermore she did it from the outside, she was born Russian, coming to America when she was six, and at the young age of 26 founding the Downtown Gallery in Greenwich Village.

There was at the time no American art movement. The few painters of the time had great difficulty selling their work. Edith changed that. Her gallery specialized in the work of these New York locals, combined agressive selling with a devotion to this style that remained for forty four years.

It was largely because of her that there is an American art scene. This book is a fine tribute to her life that has largely been forgotten.

I had a lot of trouble putting aside the book so that I could take care of my normal daily chores and business. It was interesting to me from a variety of points. One of them was the excellent introduction information about how the author first learned of Edith Gegor Halpet and then how surprised she was to discover a treasure trove of available research material including an oral history that included more than 800 transcrbed pages. While I'm not in the gallery business, I do enjoy art and I found the book a very interesting story of how tough a business the marketing of art really is. Halpert's struggles opening and running a gallery have valuable lessons for any small business owner. Some of her sales techniques could be applied to almost any business with great success. The book is a great read and provides glimpses into the world of art, artists, patrons, museums, and the important contributions women have made to the art fields over the years. It's another example of how women have come into their own.

I think Tony the Tiger put it best "It's Great! "

This book is truly a delight - it opens the eyes to the magic that Coney Island possesses, and forces you to see it in a completely new light. Told from the viewpoint of a man with strong Coney ancestry, this is really the "inside story" - from the Island's tawdry beginnings, through its turn-of-the-century glory days, the zany "nickel empire" of the 1920's, all the way into the 1950's. I wish it could go on further, but no need for complaint - that's practically where Charles Denson picks up with his marvelous book on Coney - but that's another review altogether.

Here, Edo McCullough talks honestly about Coney's glories, as well as its seamy underbelly - nothing is left out, and it isn't necessarily a "sentimental journey", after all. But all the better - the seamy side is half the fun, after all. From shifty politics, prostitution, crime and carnies, to the glories of Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase - the reader is in for a truly fascinating experience.

But be warned - once you pick the book up, you'll have a hard time putting it down. Despite it's being packed with solid history, it's a very quick read - which, I think, is a very good sign. Enjoyable education - who could ask for more?

For too many people--Brooklynites included--Coney Island is nothing but the ruins of an amusement park that only exists in choppy silent movie clips. Edo McCullough's "Good Old Coney Island: A Sentimental Journey into the Past: The Most Rambunctious, Scandalous, Rapscallion, Splendiferous, Pugnacious, Spectacular, Illustrious, Prodigious" debunks that view in an educating and enjoyable style.

What McCullough makes more than clear is that this five-mile strip of beachfront is as rich in its history as Cape Cod, perhaps moreso. From the early Indian villages to the Dutch settlers to the developers who saw in it a gold mine (once mass transit made the place accessible), Coney Island is a place of a million and one stories and histories. It was a place, as McCullough describes, wherein everything went: recreation, vice, entertainment (high and low), graft and sports. It was The Five Points and Fifth Avenue on a beach. In this sense, it could have only grown in New York because it was so much like it. However, it did offer one thing; fresh seaside air. Funny as it may seem, when the place first became popular, most New Yorkers didn't know how to swim--where could they swim, after all? In the polluted East or Hudson Rivers? By the time the rides and attractions, Dreamland and Luna Park arrived, Coney Island already earned its superelative, surreal reputation for escapism.

What I find interesting is McCullough's choice of the phrase "A Sentimental Journey" in the book's subtitle. Considering the book describes Coney Island warts and all, the sentimentality is often underplayed. And, finally, there is a nice sprinkling of illustrations throughout that helps to bring the now-faded playground of the masses back to life. Everyone will enjoy this book.

Rocco Dormarunno
author of The Five Points

This book was given to me as a gift by a dear friend who knew I had a deep interest in the communities of Gravesend and Coney Island being that I was born in Gravesend. The book is a paperback time machine. It starts at the humble beginnigs of the farming village of Gravesend in the 1600's and its founder Lady Moody and goes on to tell of the history of Coney Island, its land owners and people. This is not boring history lesson but an amazing recount of the highs and lows of the era. What's described within its pages can't fully be expressed within the small confines of this space. Its is a part of Americana as much as the Battle of Bunker Hill is. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone who is curious how evil and how spirit lifting one place could be.

The FICTION GALLERY comprises twenty-five short stories by past masters such as Anton Chekov, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver as well as by outstanding contemporary writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri, T.C. Boyle, and Hannah Tinti.

The book also includes interviews with the above three contemporary writers, adding another dimension to the readers' understanding of the fiction-writing craft. How? First, a summary of Jhumpa Lahiri's short story, and then an excerpt from her interiew.

Lahiri's "The Third and Final Continent" is a first-person story of an Indian immigrant who looks back at his first few weeks in America, thirty years ago. In the late 1960s, at age thirty-six, he arrives to work as a librarian at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after having studied for four years in London (his second continent). Just before coming to America, he takes a trip to Calcutta to "attend" his arranged marriage, staying there only a week, barely getting acquainted with his bride. She has to await her visa for six weeks before she can join him in America. On arrival in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the narrator checks into the local YMCA and later rents a room in the home of a 103-year-old widow, Mrs. Croft, who lives by herself. She is a stay-at-home eccentric mother of a 68-year-old daughter, who thinks it improper that her visiting daughter wears a dress high above her ankle. "For your information, Mother, it's 1969. What would you do if you actually left the house one day and saw a girl in a miniskirt?" Mrs. Croft sniffs: "I'd have her arrested."

When the narrator's wife, Mala, arrives from Calcutta, Mrs. Croft scrutinizes her "from top to toe with what seemed to be placid disdain. I wondered if Mrs. Croft had ever seen a woman in a sari, with a dot painted on her forehead and bracelets stacked on her wrists. I wondered what she would object to. I wondered if she could see the red dye still vivid on Mala's feet, all but obscured by the bottom edge of her sari. At last Mrs. Croft declared, with equal measure of disbelief and delight I know well:'She is a perfect lady!'"

It is this scrutiny that first evokes the narrator's empathy with his bride for it reminds him of his own experiences as a bewildered stranger in London. Looking back, "I like to think of that moment in Mrs. Croft's parlor as the moment when the distance between Mala and me began to lessen."

The interviewer's question: "You have an uncanny ability to get inside a deiverse collection of characters, regardless of age, gender, nationality, or personality. How do you zero in on your characters? Do you make detailed dossiers of look for some specific physical or emotional key or do you simply intuit these people as you write? In particular, how did Mrs. Croft come about?

Lahiri's reply: "My characters are generally always composites of people I know, people I've heard of, people I imagine, and a little drop of myself. Mainly it's a matter of intuition, of putting yourself in the body and mind of another person. It's almost like acting, only instead of performing, you portray the person in language. Mrs. Croft was based on an actual perosn. When my father first came to America, he lived for a few months in the home of a 103-year old woman. He told me a few things about her -- she insisted that my father sit with her for a while every evening, and she talked endlessly about the man on the moon. He also mentioned that she was a piano teacher. I worked these details into Mrs. Croft's character and imagined the rest."

I wish the anthology had a dozen author interviews -- presenting the story behind the story.

--C. J. Singh

Yes, the short story is alive and well. It is no longer a medium of popular entertainment but it lives on in numerous small literary magazines and anthologies, in devoted readers, and in a rising generation of great new short story writers.

This collection includes a wide range of styles and voices, but all are brilliantly done, accessible and engaging. Many of the newer short story voices are included as well as a few of the old masters, such as Hawthorne and Chekhov. Some of the writers are not afraid to break the rules--there are stories with omniscient point of view and stories that span several decades--but these authors know what they are doing and the stories work--brilliantly. The short stories are grouped into sections based on the life cycle, with short and helpful introductory comments.

The book includes delightful short interviews with three of the authors, which will be especially appealing to the authors among us. The Fiction Gallery is one of the finest collections of short stories I have ever read. I recommend it most highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

Gotham Writers' Workshop's _Fiction Gallery: Exceptional Short Stories_ is a complete toolbox of writing techniques. Masters of the art of fiction--from Hawthorne to Chopin to Carver to Borges to ZZ Packer--illustrate craft in this well-chosen sampling of fictional works. Interviews with authors about their processes add another dimension. _Fiction Gallery_ is an affordable, accessible, and comprehensive collection.

Dr. Denise Low, professor of creative writing

I have taken a class at the Gotham Writers' Workshop, and I highly recommend it. My former teacher, Thom Didato, is one of the editors of this collection. The purpose of this book is to give the reader (writer) an overview of the short story. Sure, there are countless other anthologies of short stories out there, but those either reprint the same ones over and over, or they cater to specialized markets. As it says in the introduction, "We've taken great pains to select stories that the general public will find gripping and entertaining." In other words, these stories qualify as literary fiction, but they are not pretentious or boring. There are a couple of classic stories here, by such authors as Carver, Chekov, and Hawthorne; but it is mostly comprised of contemporary stories that are only a few years old.

This book is a valuable guide to the state of the modern short story.

When having first read this book as a divorced dad to my 8 year old, I was struck by how such a story of real life could be conveyed so simply and beautifully. "Grandmother Mary" handles some of life's difficult transitions in ways that children can understand and appreciate. My daughter and I really like the fun illustrations and images of the holidays, seasons...even the weather! For us, the book was and continues to be real treat. It truly celebrates the important connections we have and make with others throughout our lifetime. As a dad who loves to read to his child, I highly recommend this book. Kudos to the author!

Certainly there are societal pressures and daily challenges facing kids today. But Uhlig's story of "Grandmother Mary" shows that these problems are not really new as she introduces us to a lady who weathered emotionally turbulent times and still finds joy in her life. Mary faces significant losses while young; and yet through an indomitable inner strength, she manages to find a wonderful and fulfilling path in life. A lovely tale for kids who are in the 8-11ish age range.

How delightful to read of the not-so-usual "fairy tale " story of a Grand mother and her history...Life is often a disappointment when one reads all the "fluff" stories of grandma's cookies and sleepy evenings in the country..Mary was a true and courageous child whose life is an inspiration for the REAL world ..My grandchildren loved the beauty of Mary and the illustrations of this book....and let the author know that this reader had a wondrous experience reading it to my 87 year old mother..who enjoyed the life of Mary and the places that she could recall and relate to..such an added dessert for this family..Greatgrandmother ,Grandmother and Granchildren..I am so delighted to see the photo of Mary at her door..Long Live Grandmother Mary...and I look forward eagerly to Ms. Uhligs next adventure ..

This is a wonderful book in content and illustration. Each page is beautifully illustrated with hand drawn images. The story of Grandmother Mary is not a fairytale story. Instead, it is a recount of a woman and her family over time. It is a book that will not only be enjoyed by a young person now but is sure to be a favorite for years to come. I look forward to more books by Ms. Uhlig.

Brings you the history and images of the Great Camps that help make the Adirondacks the Adirondacks. Well illustrated and well written, relating more history than a coffee table book and so more likely to hold your interest and provide insight. The history is social as well as architectural/formal, and puts the region and its unbelievable heyday in perspective. A good gift, or would be fun as a guide or trip planning tool for a visit to the region to get the most out of what there still is to see.

The discovery of this book made me set aside all the others on rustic architecture. The author does a marvelous job in explaining the beginnings of rustic architecture and why it has a permanent place in our culture. The mix of social background and the history of the early Adirondack camps with superb photographs provides a designers guidebook. The arguments for historic preservation are skillfully written and should be read by anyone in the field.

From the 'opening' of the Adirondacks in the 18th Century to the present, Harvey Kaiser delivers a premier photographic history of the Great Camps of the Adirondacks. Exploring the architectural history from an owner's whinsey to the details of a porch railing, Kaiser guides the reader through a history of gorgeous excess and an age of bountiful richness that few knew. Camp Uncas (owner J.P. Morgan), Topridge (Marjorie Merriweather Post) and Nehasane (Dr. William Seward Webb) are just a few of the detailed highlights showcased in this volume. Many of the larger hotels and lesser known camps (and castles) are photographed and discussed here at length. This book is not just for the architect, builder or historian. It is a display of architectural beauty build into a unique and mysterious landscape. It is a history never to be repeated and never to be forgotten.

I'm giving this the best review - but, I admit, I am the son of one of the owners of a house mentioned in the book! The house is Kildare Club. However, I'm unbiast! (SORT OF)
Anyway, I think it is an interesting book that is certainly worth reading and it revealed alot to me that I hadn't discovered about the Great Camps of the Adirondacks. (NOTE HOW I CLEVERLY INSERTED THE TITLE IN ORDER TO DELIVER A SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE. HEHE!