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• Betty Wilson gets critical acc

  • From: AlphaWorld
  • Description:

    By  Robert S. Newman "Bob Newman" (Marblehead, Massachusetts USA) - See
    all my reviews
    
    
    Back in the 1930s, `40s and `50s, John Gunther wrote a series of books
    called "Inside Europe", "Inside Asia" etc. I read them decades ago with
    considerable interest, but along the way I realized that he interviewed
    some top figures in each country that he visited, threw in some local
    color and gossip, and that was that. He didn't get "inside" more than
    one or two places. Now, if you really want an inside look at another
    world, you couldn't do better than get hold of MR. JEFFERSON'S PIANO.
     From plugging rat holes, to crazy tenants, to corrupt or lazy
    supervisors, to suffocating bureaucracy and one woman's struggle to
    wend her way through all this and still stay sane---in short, every
    last detail of the New York public housing scene as it looked in Harlem
     from 1978 to 2001---this novel brings you inside public housing in
    Harlem in colorful, spellbinding detail. I could hardly put it down.
    
    The thing is, though, that "novel" may not be the correct term here.
    The author claims everything is fictitious. As an anthropologist, I can
    feel the accuracy of all the observations made in the book. Betty
    Wilson certainly stuck to the old axiom for writers, "Write what you
    know." If she doesn't know the ups and downs, ins and outs of public
    housing in Central Harlem, I'll eat my hat....or even several hats ! I
    read this as the inside story on the world of the crumbling tenements,
    cops and drug addicts, both caring and useless officials, junkyard
    dogs, and stubborn old ladies hanging on in the once-beautiful
    apartments of Harlem. A book that constantly came to mind was Dennis
    Smith's "Report from Engine Co. 82", which I read back in 1972 but
    never forgot because of its honest reportage from the inside about the
    New York fire department. Wilson's book reminded me of Smith's, which
    was classed as non-fiction, because every line rings true. Is it
    fiction ? I will leave that to readers and the author. If it's fiction,
    it is based on long experience; the endlessly fascinating stories
    (which kind of telescope one into another) are drawn from gritty
    reality. I'm not sure how necessary it was to include the marriage and
    personal life of the narrator (Melba Farris) nor the section on the
    events of 9-11, though it was moving. While a book portraying the daily
    life of public housing supervisors, inspectors, building
    superintendents and the tenants they "serve" is unique, books about
    battered wives and bad marriages are legion. There are also large
    numbers of pieces on "my experience on Sept. 11, 2001."
    
    I would hope that this book reaches people in many walks of life. It's
    one of those rare slice of life-books that reveal a world that the vast
    majority of people know nothing about. It could be required reading in
    many kinds of courses---from urban anthropology, field work methodology
    and organizational behavior to management and labor relations. It will
    keep your attention all the way no matter why you read it. I usually
    keep five stars for works by the giants of world literature or great
    books of history and anthropology, and I have to admit Wilson is not
    quite up to Austen, Balzac, Tolstoy, Morrison, or Bellow. However, this
    is a fascinating book, regardless of stars.
    

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• teresa

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