THE GOOD CITY: Writers Explore 21st-Century Boston
, . . Beacon, $14 (175pp) ISBN 978-0-8070-7143-4
This slim volume of essays is the literary equivalent of meandering down Boston's crooked streets. Wander this way to relax beneath the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's "glass-roofed courtyard." Head that way to discover "a hive of innovation," where telegraphs were perfected, the telephone invented and general anesthesia first used. Saunter into the Frederick Olmstead–designed Emerald Necklace series of parks to enjoy "trees and shrubs, interwoven with meadows, community gardens, ponds and streams, and freshwater marshes in the midst of an urban setting." Of course, the city's ugly side is also here: busing riots and racism, gentrification and urban renewal, corrupt politics and a perennial also-ran baseball team. Hiestand (
Reviewed on: 06/14/2004
Genre: Nonfiction