I hate travelling by plane and I am not really gung-ho on the in-flight entertainment. In order to amuse myself for 20 or so hours, I usually pick up a book or two (or three, or four) to read during these marathon flights. Lately, I've been drifting towards the history sections of Barnes and Noble and Borders, particularly towards the books on medieval queens, and had wanted to pick up a book on Isabella, the She-Wolf of France (the consort of Edward II, and boy, was she wrong to marry him!). Instead, while browsing through the 20th century shelf, I found a book with an absurdly long title: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning 1977, Baseball, Politics and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler. I have always been unnaturally interested in history (people actually told me that girls don't read history books, which makes me wonder what kind of girls they hang out with) and it wasn't hard to get excited about a book on NYC in 1977. I had lived through the New York blackout of 2003, and when the lights came back after 14 hours, the news shows were making comparisons with the last blackout, which occurred in 1977. The blackout of 1977 was marked by riots that occured in many black neighorhoods in New York, and the situation was made more difficult by the shortage of New York City policement. The summer of 1977 was also dubbed "the summer of the Son of Sam" as serial killer David Berkowitz (who called himself the Son of Sam) stalked the outer boroughs. It turned out that Mr. Berkowitz was taking orders from a black Labrador that belonged to his neighbor Sam (duh!). Moreover, as a Bronx resident and Yankee fan, I was up for a little bit of baseball history.
Mahler writes in his prologue that he began to write a story about the battle of wills between then Yankee manager Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin and baseball superstar and Reginald Martinez "Reggie" Jackson, with New York City providing the backdrop. However, the author noted that as the narrative progressed, the story of New York City moved towards the forefront, providing a parallel to the volatile Yankee season in 1977.
Mahler deftly weaves several storylines in his book. While Martin and Jackson slugged it out at Fenway Park (to the glee of the Red Sox fans), the New York Democratic primary was no less exciting as Abe Beame, Bella Abzug, Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch battled for New York City votes. The heated contest was fanned by the sensational reporting of the city's rival tabloids, the News and the Post (recently acquired by the Australian tycoon Rupert Murdoch). Meanwhile, the city's fiscal problems resulted in the layoff of thousands of policemen and firefighters in spite of the high crime and arson rates, with the crisis coming to a head during the blackout of July 13, 1977. New York had become Fear City, and in the midst of this fear, a serial killer who called himself the "Son of Sam" stalked through its streets.
This is probably one of the best books I have ever read.
I've always thought that real life is more fantastic than anything we can come up with in our imagination. This book is a great example. Mahler writes so compellingly about this period of history that I was swept into the story in a way that not many works of fiction can. In fact, I had gone through almost half of the book even before boarding the plane. I felt the sweltering heat of the summer of '77, and smelled the stink of the city in the wake of walk-outs by sanitation workers. I felt the frustration of the Yankee fan, thoroughly humiliated by the World Series defeat by the Cincinnati Reds in 1976. I heard the protests of the 5000 New York City policemen who were laid off to ease the city's fiscal woes. I walked the streets and rode the subway, scared as hell, hoping to reach home before something evil got to me first. I saw the arson fires that razed through Brooklyn and the Bronx, as I sat in the dark, waiting for the lights to come back.
Mahler writes about a New York that my generation does not remember. In 2008, New York is a slick and sophisticated Carrie Bradshaw, sipping a Cosmo, writing for Vogue, and not giving a s___ about spending $800 on a single pair of shoes. In 1977, New York was a wild woman waking up on the sidewalk with a pounding headache and no memory of the previous night. The city was a howling wilderness, full of trash and graffiti and suspicion and fear. And yet, the book shows a genuine nostalgia for this period. The phrase "if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere" takes on a deeper meaning when you have to fight tooth and nail to get what you want. In this gritty landscape, wars were fought and dreams were made. And yes, World Series are also won.
