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January 8, 2008
Reviews: Brooklyn Was Mine
Time Out NY, Book Review
Despite the inclusion of some heavy-hitting writers, Brooklyn Was Mine shines brightest when it records the voices of Brooklyn’s nonwriters.
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When the writers look navel-ward, however, they start to ring hollow. Lawrence Osborne’s account of feeling disoriented after a mere year in Thailand feels disingenuous. Katie Roiphe’s examination of her doomed marriage crowds out a promising portrait of the Coney Island her father knew. Self-indulgence and creamy nostalgia also mar Phillip Lopate’s wonder-full introduction: Turns out that the “vanished ideal” of neighborhoods still exists in “a few places, such as…Brooklyn.” Just don’t tell that to people who live in Jackson Heights, or to members of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Brooklyn Based, Their Brooklyn
Wary of reading 19 rah-rah stories about a place already filled with insanely proud people, BB expected not to like Brooklyn Was Mine, an anthology of essays by local authors about Brooklyn past, present, and pre-boom.
But I was defenseless from page one.
Posted by lumi at January 8, 2008 8:31 PM