From Publishers Weekly
Love it, loathe it or simply view it as the most efficient way to get from Brooklyn to the Upper West Side, the New York City subway system is an urban wonder: running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Kennedy says it boasts 468 stations, 656 miles of passenger tracks and 6,400 cars, which might carry up to 200 passengers each. It also offers New Yorkers and visitors alike "the gift of proximity"=an "enforced neighborhood" that makes New York "more... cohesive than a city its size ever had a right to be." So argues Kennedy, author of the New York Times column "Tunnel Vision," in the introduction to this collection of three years of his musings on train buffs, poetically inspired token booth operators, singles cars, token suckers, subway performers, track workers and underground fauna. Thematically organized into sections like "Underground Government" and "Wildlife," the travelogue of the world beneath the city offers a wealth of fascinating sketches, such as the A line's pigeon stowaways in Far Rockaway, the misanthropic comic at 53rd and Fifth and the man who built a replica of a motorman's cab in his bedroom ("When I show it to people, right away they know I'm not married," he says ruefully). Trivia abounds: the E train is the best train to sleep on; some of the subway's early construction was thanks to blind mules; 27 of the retired Redbird cars form an artificial reef off Delaware; and a recent Lost Property Unit auction offered 285 beepers, five violins and a box of tambourines. 7 b&w photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“On every page of this handsomely-written collection, Randy Kennedy has taught me something new. Everything I cherish about the subways is here: the underground community of solitude, the performers, the lunatics, the sinister desperadoes, the professionals who move us through those tunnels in speed and safety, along with the abiding mysteries. If these pieces don't get the remaining subwayphobes out of their stalled autos and into the city's greatest daily marvel, nothing will."
- Pete Hamill
"...to read his notes from the underground (and the elevated) is to know that Kennedy crafts city stories on a par with the marvelous Joseph Mitchell's....he discovers Gotham at its scrappiest--the most American place in America.. A"
- Entertainment Weekly
Review
“On every page of this handsomely-written collection, Randy Kennedy has taught me something new. Everything I cherish about the subways is here: the underground community of solitude, the performers, the lunatics, the sinister desperadoes, the professionals who move us through those tunnels in speed and safety, along with the abiding mysteries. If these pieces don't get the remaining subwayphobes out of their stalled autos and into the city's greatest daily marvel, nothing will."
- Pete Hamill
"...to read his notes from the underground (and the elevated) is to know that Kennedy crafts city stories on a par with the marvelous Joseph Mitchell's....he discovers Gotham at its scrappiest--the most American place in America.. A"
- Entertainment Weekly
Book Description
Since the doors of the first subway train opened in 1904, New Yorkers and tourists alike have been fascinated, amused, amazed, repelled and bewildered by the world-within-a-world that lies beneath the city.
Now, as the subway celebrates its centennial anniversary, the creator of The New York Times's award-winning "Tunnel Vision" column leads us on an extended tour of this storied subterranean land, revealing:
* Its inhabitants: the Tango Man, the traveling magician, Mayor Bloomberg
* Its wildlife: the subway-riding pigeons, the Fulton Street cat, the blind mules
* Its customs, taboos and secret histories: door blocking, leg spreading, pole hugging, even, yes, token sucking
* Its government: the sheriff of Grand Central, the Ethel Merman of the shuttle, the motorman who drove the last No. 1 train beneath the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001
* Tips for the first-time traveler: how to get a seat, how to get a date, the fine art of "pre-walking"
From the Inside Flap
"On every page of this handsomely written collection, Randy Kennedy has taught me something new. Everything I cherish about the subways is here: the underground community of solitude, the performers, the lunatics, the sinister desperadoes, the professionals who move us through those tunnels in speed and safety, along with the abiding mysteries. If these pieces don't get the remaining subwayphobes out of their stalled autos and into the city's greatest daily marvel, nothing will."
---Pete Hamill
About the Author
Randy Kennedy has been a reporter at The New York Times for ten years. In 2001, "Tunnel Vision" won the New York State Associated Press Association award for best column. He lives in Brooklyn and takes the R train.
Subwayland: Adventures in the World Beneath New York FROM THE PUBLISHER
Since the doors of the first subway train opened in 1904, New Yorkers and tourists alike have been fascinated, amused, amazed, repelled and bewildered by the world-within-a-world that lies beneath the city. Now, as the subway celebrates its centennial anniversary, the creator of The New York Times's award-winning "Tunnel Vision" column leads us on an extended tour of this storied subterranean land, revealing: Its inhabitants: the Tango Man, the traveling magician, Mayor Bloomberg; Its wildlife: the subway-riding pigeons, the Fulton Street cat, the blind mules; Its customs, taboos and secret histories: door blocking, leg spreading, pole hugging, even, yes, token sucking; Its government: the sheriff of Grand Central, the Ethel Merman of the shuttle, the motorman who drove the last No. 1 train beneath the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001; Tips for the first-time traveler: how to get a seat, how to get a date, the fine art of "pre-walking"
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Love it, loathe it or simply view it as the most efficient way to get from Brooklyn to the Upper West Side, the New York City subway system is an urban wonder: running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Kennedy says it boasts 468 stations, 656 miles of passenger tracks and 6,400 cars, which might carry up to 200 passengers each. It also offers New Yorkers and visitors alike "the gift of proximity" an "enforced neighborhood" that makes New York "more... cohesive than a city its size ever had a right to be." So argues Kennedy, author of the New York Times column "Tunnel Vision," in the introduction to this collection of three years of his musings on train buffs, poetically inspired token booth operators, singles cars, token suckers, subway performers, track workers and underground fauna. Thematically organized into sections like "Underground Government" and "Wildlife," the travelogue of the world beneath the city offers a wealth of fascinating sketches, such as the A line's pigeon stowaways in Far Rockaway, the misanthropic comic at 53rd and Fifth and the man who built a replica of a motorman's cab in his bedroom ("When I show it to people, right away they know I'm not married," he says ruefully). Trivia abounds: the E train is the best train to sleep on; some of the subway's early construction was thanks to blind mules; 27 of the retired Redbird cars form an artificial reef off Delaware; and a recent Lost Property Unit auction offered 285 beepers, five violins and a box of tambourines. 7 b&w photos. (Feb.) Forecast: As the subway's centenary approaches (the first subway, from City Hall to Harlem, opened on Oct. 27, 1904), this ode to public transportation ought to find a sizable and enthusiastic audience. The publisher plans a national publicity and ad campaign. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Quirky and compulsively readable, Subwayland contains a selection of Kennedy's "Tunnel Vision" columns from the New York Times. Kennedy, a staff writer for the Times since 1994, is not a native New Yorker, yet his columns display a fierce affection for this particularly New York institution. He covers a wide range of subjects, from subway performers to seat-grabbing strategies to subway buffs. The effect is one of completeness-this is one man's long-term investigation into the phenomenon that is the New York City subway, and the selection of material bears evidence of careful thought. Columns are organized thematically rather than chronologically, except for the last chapter, "Disaster Down Under," which contains columns relating to 9/11. Kennedy's eye for a story brings out some of the lesser-known tales of the New York City subway, and his obvious attachment to the subject, combined with his ear for prose, results in a fine book. Subwayland will be a popular choice for all libraries and for students of sociology, prospective visitors to New York, or readers just looking to explore a slice of Americana. A solid purchase.-Audrey Snowden, Brewer, ME Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
New York Times reporter Kennedy collects his "Tunnel Vision" columns to reveal the city's subway system as "a society unto itself, with its own citizenry, government, flora and fauna, customs, myths, taboos." Intrepidly exploring underground NYC, the author writes with both openness-a relief in a book on subways-and compression, which keeps things moving even when the trains aren't. Kennedy knows how to keep himself out of the picture and let his subjects take the limelight. Unlike some columnists, he's not here to pontificate; he's here to report on the people's limousine. Kennedy doesn't pretend that the subways are heaven, but he does show them providing a "kinship of the slightly oppressed," a bit of glue in the urban matrix that creates a live-and-let-live attitude few other cities can boast. The entertainment, he suggests, can be found in the sideshows: the performers, the bluesmen, and the magicians, certainly, but also the woman who sells her short stories for $2 a pop, or the pigeons that grab a train at Far Rockaway and ride a few stops to feast on available tidbits. To Kennedy's credit, he never gets cute. Watch the sheriff of Grand Central keep order: "Get your arm outta that door!" says the cop. "That wasn't that man's train. He's got reservations on the next one." Token-sucking, once "considered the single most disgusting nonviolent crime ever to visit the subway," is history, bur fear not: you can still catch the fragrance at Union Square, where "the door of the women's room was wide open, allowing a fermented aroma to roll out like harbor fog." Engaging and nattily written. (7 b&w photos)
Art & Photography
Book Info
