Subway City: Riding the Trains, Reading New York

Subway critics have existed in New York since trains first rumbled underground, and their criticisms have not changed much. Though its creators conceived of a rapid transit system that would lift the lives and spirits of the city's poor, the subway quickly came to represent the ""unity lost amid competing urban visions, angry class conflict and mutual recrimination."" Brooks, professor of English at West Chester University, offers a study of the subway as an urban symbol. It is both a story of the power of politics and finance in creating the subway and a survey of human impressions. The first half of the book focuses--in minute, sometimes tedious, detail--on the history of rapid transit and the various influences instrumental in its development, with a particular indictment of William Randolph Hearst. The more successful latter part of the book turns to an analysis of the art and literature it inspired. Critical readings of Ralph Ellison and Betty Smith reveal manifestations of racial and gender inequality, while art ranging from John Sloan to Keith Haring exposes a struggle to understand transformations in both the physical city and its inhabitants. Showing through art and literature how attitudes toward the subway rise and fall over time, Brooks maintains an enthusiastic belief that the subway is a place ""to celebrate the urban experience."" Despite an extensive and effective use of political cartoons, paintings and illustrations, the book does not include maps to enhance its lengthy discussion of subway expansion. (Aug.)