Lower East Side Oral Histories

by Eric Ferrara, Nina Howes

The Lower East Side has long been one of Manhattan's most vibrant neighborhoods. For centuries, it has been home to hundreds of enclaves of immigrants from every part of the world; as they became New Yorkers, the neighborhood in turn became infused with their cultures, foods, traditions, and personalities. In this book, Lower East Side historians Eric Ferrara and Nina Howes document the memories of 25 people who lived in this larger-than-life corner of New York. From childhood memories with family to observations of the constantly changing face of the neighborhood, discover the Lower East Side through the eyes and voices of the people who have made it what it is today.

Genres: New York

160 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2012

Reviews

[Avis Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love reading memoirs, but the one category I hate is the memoir about big city American life in the early half of the 20th century. The culture of big city life in this period was sordid, nasty, brutish, dreary, and lacking in humanity. Daily life for a kid was asphalt, smelly trashcans, robbing peddler's carts, and keeping away from pedophile bums and violent gangs. Your elders were a lot of transplanted Old World peasants who were rude as hell to each other, always in each others' faces, and who wouldn't know a social grace if it bit them on the ass.

The arts? It was jazz and Jackson Pollock, the most vapid and idiotic period in artistic history, the one noted for the greatest amount of bad taste and the most conceited batch of art critics that ever tried to con a gullible public.

Unfortunately, too many of the people in this book make great leaps over the potentially interesting parts in their lives and come across like yadda yadda bores.