– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –

Published by St. Martin’s Press on 24 Jul 2018
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A fascinating cultural history of New York City’s Bowery, from the author of The Flatiron.

The Bowery, which is the oldest street in Manhattan, was a synonym for despair throughout most of the 20th century. The neighborhood’s name recalled visuals of drunken bums passed out on the sidewalk, and New Yorkers nicknamed it “Satan’s Highway,” “The Mile of Hell,” and “The Street of Forgotten Men.” It was so shameful for so many years that the little businesses along the Bowery–stationers, dry goods sellers, jewelers, hatters–periodically asked the city to change the street’s name. To have a Bowery address, they claimed, was hurting them; people did not want to venture there.

But in the 1990s, as New York was exploding into real estate frenzy, developers discovered the Bowery. Around 2000, they rushed in and began tearing down. Today, the bad old Bowery no longer exists, and instead, Whole Foods, hipster night spots, and expensive lofts replace the flophouses and dive bars.

In Devil’s Mile, Alice Sparberg Alexiou explores the history and future of The Bowery back to its origins, when farmland covered the areas around the boulevard and the area around it was considered outside of town. She’ll explore the years after the Civil War when the Bowery rivaled Fifth Avenue for best Manhattan addresses. And she’ll tell this story as soon as she can, before all its old buildings, and the memories associated with them, disappear.

I chose this book because…

Who doesn’t have a fascination with New York City? Although the magic of New York City has waned for me, I’m still intrigued by the way different people view and write about the city. This one is a “cultural history,” and although I don’t typically reach for historical books, I want to give this one a chance. I wonder whether my background in anthropology (as in I took two anthropology courses in college haha) will help me appreciate a “cultural history,” or perhaps it’ll read like a historical fiction (which I enjoy) and follow a character or family, or perhaps it’ll simply be a solid non-fiction history that reads well like a story. Whichever way it goes, I’m approaching it with an open mind, and I’m excited that this is the second physical book I’ve ever been sent to read and review!

Upon reading it…

The verdict is that it’s a solid non-fiction history that reads well like a story-ish. It definitely isn’t as dry as a history textbook, but it’s not quite like a fictional narrative where you follow one plot line. Rather, it’s more like speeding through time, in one place, and picking up the stories of various characters along the way. It’s pretty much what you would expect of a cultural history — not a historical fiction or anything else, simply a cultural history.

I’m not big on history, I’m bad with names, and I’m not all that familiar with the geography of New York City, so there were moments that felt a bit dry to me, but there were certainly figures and topics that piqued my interest. For example, I got most excited when Alexiou wrote about theatre, because that felt more relevant to me, as someone who mainly visits NYC for theatres, museums, and friends. I also got excited whenever I recognised a name, finally connecting the neighbourhood I knew to its namesake. For example, the Astor brothers. I enjoyed learning about their sibling rivalry and was able to immerse myself in that subplot, as if I were reading historical fiction.

I would recommend this book to anyone who grew up in NYC and wants to learn more about its history, as a familiarity with the geography of the city would help give the book more context in your own life. If you didn’t grow up in NYC but are familiar with it and want to learn more about its history, you may enjoy this book too. And if you don’t know very much about NYC but simply like history, you may enjoy it as well. The book could benefit from providing maps to help those visual learners like me out there who aren’t very familiar with NYC. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable and enlightening read.

★★★★☆

Nothing, after all, is forever. Especially in New York, the city that never stops demolishing structures and rebuilding and where new people arrive daily in pursuit of their dreams.