Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Gods of New York:
More like men with god complexes.
Quick synopsis:
The city and people of New York City in the late 1980s.
Fact for Non-History People:
NYC’s population declined by one million during the 1970s.
Fact for History Nerds:
During cold nights below 32 degrees, upwards of 8,000 individuals and 4,000 families were sheltered by city resources because they were homeless.
My Take on The Gods of New York:
Oh, this one is very difficult to rate. Johnathan Mahler decided to write the Gods of New York, a book which ticked every box on my childhood checklist of “major news stories I heard about as a suburban kid who grew up just outside of New York City in the late 80s.” The question I kept asking myself is whether the book would be good for someone who didn’t grow up around these cases and who wouldn’t have a frame of reference for much of this.
From a writing perspective, Mahler is very talented, and it is obvious from the first page. This book clocks in at a tad over 400 pages, but it read easier and faster than most sub-300 page narratives. His characters are vivid and he is quite good at doing a lot with a little.
The content is where some issues do arise. There are three major pillars of the book. The AIDS epidemic, crime/race relations, and Donald Trump. When discussing 1986-1990 in the city, all of these are candidates for a deep dive. However, I couldn’t help but feel the AIDS epidemic gets short shrift while Trump could have been a minor player just mentioned a couple of times like some other people. The majority of the book covers crime and race relations. These parts are quite excellent (with the caveat that the author goes too easy on Al Sharpton, but that may just be me). The AIDS epidemic makes sense to include because it was such a big deal. The gay community used many of the same tactics as racial justice organizers. I would have liked more depth on that movement.
Trump feels shoehorned in. Yes, he was a major player in the city at the time, but ultimately, he is tangential to everything else in the book. Even his short sections often have more to do with Atlantic City than New York City. Yes, he is supposed to be a stand-in for many real estate and Wall Street moguls, but there are already cases tried by Rudy Giuliani for that perspective. This is not the first book lately which seems to add Trump for attention rather than because he is vital to the story being told.
In the end, I went ahead and rated this one based on how much I enjoyed it. I may be wearing my nostalgia glasses, but my criticisms didn’t stop me from reading and enjoying this immensely. A must read for anyone in NYC’s orbit in the late 80s. (Just writing that makes me feel so old….)
(This book was provided as a review copy by Random House.)
Verdict:
80s NY kid approved. Buy it here!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.