Downtown

Starred review from November 15, 2004
New Yorkers love calamity," writes Hamill in this marvelous guide to the most expensive piece of real estate in the world. This is a look at the calamities—and the successes—that have struck downtown Manhattan since the time of the first explorers from the Old World. Hamill's Manhattan is filled with history, architecture and giant personalities. Readers will be thrust into the Civil War riots in Greenwich Village in 1863 and will rejoice in a Times Square filled with delirious New Yorkers on VJ Day in 1945. They will watch the city grow as the subway crawls northward and the big skyscrapers begin to pop up, from the Woolworth Building in 1913 to the World Trade Center in the 1970s. The city's rogues and heroes are portrayed in action—from Aaron Burr and John Jacob Astor to Stanford White, Walter Winchell and a visiting Oscar Wilde. This is a companion piece to Forever
, Hamill's novel of New York, and The Drinking Life
, which explored the city through the alcohol-fueled eyes of the young Hamill. It is written with insight, humor and, most of all, a deep love of the Big Apple. Perhaps Hamill's mother, Anne Devlin, best put it into perspective: "You've seen it before," she told young Peter the first time he was transfixed by the spires of Gotham. "It's Oz." Agent, Esther Newberg. (Dec. 1)

Forecast:
A national advertising and media campaign is planned. Hamill, a favorite on the talk show circuit, is sure to appear all over just before the holidays, giving this title a nice Christmas boost.

August 1, 2004
Hamill, who has served as editor in chief of the New York Post and the Daily News, knows his city well. Here he heads to downtown Manhattan, where it all started.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2004
Former editor in chief of both the New York Post and the New York Daily News, Hamill spent his adult life in downtown Manhattan. A highly literate and eloquent writer (see also his memoir A Drinking Life), he thoughtfully guides readers through that borough's neighborhoods, which he knew as a young man and still walks. Threaded throughout is the idea of loss and nostalgia: New Yorkers pay an emotional price for the city's constant, irreversible change, he writes. Yet his vision is ultimately uplifting, that of "New York alloy." Hamill masterfully includes many astonishing facts, e.g., Washington Square was built on the graves of a potter's field; the first branch of the New York Public Library, the Ottendorfer Branch, founded in 1884, still stands doing its job, on Second Avenue. The book ends with Hamill generously sharing his sources for readers wanting to continue learning about the city. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 8/04.]-Elaine Machleder, Bronx, NY

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2004
Hamill is an excellent novelist (see in particular " Snow in August," 1997), but in his latest book, he wears his hat as one of the last of the old-time newspapermen whose life and work simply " define" New York City. He calls this book an "essay . . . based on memory, reporting, and reading." What that amounts to is a delightfully personal, robustly informative portrait of New York, Manhattan in particular (and Lower Manhattan more specifically).Having been in the newspaper biz for four decades, he knows how to keep his eyes and ears open for the good story, the telling detail, and the quirky but exemplary character. As he escorts readers around the island of Manhattan, he takes heavy glances back into history--insisting that New Yorkers constantly experience "aching nostalgia"--as he not so much classifies but revels in the distinctions of NYC both as a "concrete place and as an idea." A marvelous read for anyone who has a hometown.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

January 3, 2005
Hamill has spent most of his life in New York City, and he knows its history and its pulse intimately. In this paean to his hometown, he moves from southernmost Manhattan to its center, and from the city's origins to its current state. Each CD focuses on one area, beginning with Battery Park and working through Trinity Church, the Bowery and the Villages before jumping to the city's heart: Times Square. The only sound effects (brief jazzy riffs) can be heard at the beginning and end of each disc, and the stark quiet of Hamill's narration seems odd for a book about such a noisy city. However, his gruff, seen-it-all voice, filled alternately with wonder at the beauty of a building, disdain for modern trends and indignation at how some worthy historical character has been forgotten, is that of a wise older relative revealing the true past of a place he loves. He speaks often of the "human alloy" of new and old immigrants that comprises Manhattan, and intersperses his own experiences growing up in Brooklyn and coming of age in the Lower East Side. Hamill's narration is somewhat monotonous, but his way of traveling seamlessly through neighborhoods and years, relating fascinating anecdotes and little-known facts, keeps the tour lively. Simultaneous release with the Little, Brown hardcover (Forecasts, Nov. 15, 2004).