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I spent a fair amount of time on the bus last week reading Inside the Dream Palace, by Sherill Tippins. The book is a history of the Chelsea Hotel in New York City: the building itself, the residents, and the artistic communities that those residents participated in. The time period covered is roughly mid-1800s to the present, with the heaviest coverage being of the 1930s-1970s. Great as research fodder without being entirely satisfying as standalone history. I enjoyed the book and found it quite readable, but when I sit down to try and review it I am just all niggles and doubts.
I think how much someone likes this book will depend a lot on their general knowledge of New York cultural history and the interest they have in the specific people who get profiled most heavily in the text. There's quite a bit of stuff that's interesting in here about people like Stephen Crane, Brendan Behan, the Beat poets, and rock musicians of the 60s, and 70s. I'm not sure how effective the gossip would be for people who aren't familiar with the artists discussed, but if a reader sat down with youtube/google and pulled up musicians and artists as they were mentioned it might be a very fun experience.
( Complaints, niggly thoughts, and personal reflections: )
So, yeah: plenty of interesting fodder here if you already knew some of the people named, and were already curious about them, and it's a fun world to play in, but it didn't quite satisfy me on its own / in and of itself. But if you're looking for some playground furniture for your mental / historical New York playground, it's full of highly useful tidbits and leads.
I think how much someone likes this book will depend a lot on their general knowledge of New York cultural history and the interest they have in the specific people who get profiled most heavily in the text. There's quite a bit of stuff that's interesting in here about people like Stephen Crane, Brendan Behan, the Beat poets, and rock musicians of the 60s, and 70s. I'm not sure how effective the gossip would be for people who aren't familiar with the artists discussed, but if a reader sat down with youtube/google and pulled up musicians and artists as they were mentioned it might be a very fun experience.
( Complaints, niggly thoughts, and personal reflections: )
So, yeah: plenty of interesting fodder here if you already knew some of the people named, and were already curious about them, and it's a fun world to play in, but it didn't quite satisfy me on its own / in and of itself. But if you're looking for some playground furniture for your mental / historical New York playground, it's full of highly useful tidbits and leads.
