Downtown By Pete Hamill

New York is a place filled with nostalgia. That is the conclusion I came to after reading Downtown by Pete Hamill. Of course that is a very simplistic way of putting that. The premise of the book is extremely simple a walk through downtown Manhattan with a good friend who really loves it. What makes this book so interesting is this book is there is still a story there with a definite beginning climax and end you just have to look for it. I approached this book at first for a very superficial reasons I love New York and wanted to relive some great memories. I came away from this book with so much more an apreciation for a place with real roots and heart. I weill never be a native New Yorker but i have my own "Downtown". Where we all come from has its own stories to tell maybe not as well known or as glamorous as others but no less important. that is what I came away with. The clever thing about this story is haow you go for this walk from Battery Park through Greenwich past the Lower east side up 5th Ave and Broadway ultimitely ending up in Times Square and that is how the Island kid of grew. Few places on earth are so integrate, diverse and constantly eveolving as New York. Yet New Yorkers are very proud of their past and won't forget it other wise you have no real foundation. I was fascinated by the stories of Newspapermen, Politicians, and gangsters in this book. But the genius of this book is really it really does tell a story that is very personal. Around 1990 it really did appear as if New York would in the words of Nixon "drop dead" but it turned around and became that city of Oz it is to all of us.