The author focuses on a single year in the history of New York City: 1977, which he sees as "a transformative moment for the city," and which is marked by, among other things, the Son of Sam murders, the opening of Studio 54, the Yankees winning the World Series, and a citywide blackout.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
In many ways, this book is a fascinating prelude to Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. [31 Jan 2005, p.55]
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Favorable
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New York Observer Ben Smith
His eyes are remarkably clear. [11 Apr 2005, p.17]
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Jon Meacham
Entertaining and illuminating.
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Favorable
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Washington Post Jonathan Yardley
Using sports as metaphor for more important business is a risky business that usually falls flat, but Mahler is right to see the Yankees -- talented, egotistical, contentious, arrogant -- as the city where they played in miniature, and to sense in the note of triumph on which their wild season ended an augury of better things.
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Favorable
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Wall Street Journal Daniel Akst
Compulsively readable if tantalizingly imperfect.
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Mixed
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Village Voice Benjamin Strong
Mahler's analysis is sharpest when he sticks to baseball.
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Mixed
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The New York Times William Grimes
[An] ambitiously conceived, marvelously told but somewhat puzzling portrait of New York in 1977.
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Unfavorable
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Boston Globe John Thorn
This is a maddening book, pleasing in its parts, delightful in its evident craft, yet ill conceived and constructed.
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Unfavorable
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Entertainment Weekly Steve Wulf
Researched and rendered in the manner of a term paper.
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