As its back cover states, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning is literally "a kaleidoscopic portrait of New York City in 1977," as Jonathan Mahler ambitiously weaves together New York City's major stories of that surprisingly pivotal year -- the Yankees turmoil-filled championship season; the divisive mayoral race; the blackout that illuminated racial tensions and socio-economic disparities; Rupert Murdoch's back-to-back takeover of the New York Post and New York Magazine; the "Son of Sam" killer; plus, several other low-profile but similarly influential events -- into a dizzying collage of information and insight that is ever-so-slightly less than the sum of its parts.

Mahler acknowledges in the introduction that the City itself, unsurprisingly, simply refused to remain in the background of what was intended to be a personal account of the Yankees incredible, raucous run to the Championship, and as a result, his fractured tale of ambition, hubris and redemption ends on a somewhat anti-climactic note. Nevertheless, the joy is in the journey and he takes the scenic route, offering an impressive overview of a landmark year in the life of the City that never sleeps, one which came precariously close putting it down for the count once and for all, but instead, became a turning point whose fingerprints can be clearly seen on the New York City of 2007.

In September 1977, a former New York City public school teacher named Giorgio DeLuca unveiled SoHo's first supermarket. (Andy Warhol was among those who signed the guest book on its opening day.) For years people had been calling SoHo the new Montparnasse. The twenty-six-hundred-square-foot Dean & DeLuca would be its fromagerie, patisserie, and boulangerie all rolled into one. In later years the proud pioneers who had settled -- or resettled anyway -- this urban frontier would point darkly to the day, identifying it as the tipping point, the moment when their beloved neighborhood made the irreversible transition from scruffy artists' colony to theme park for the taste-fetishizing upwardly mobile.

Being the same age as Mahler, born and raised in NYC for most of my life and having lived ten blocks northeast of Yankee Stadium during the period covered, his tale is an enthralling mix of nostalgic flashbacks, unlocked memories and revelatory clarifications from my own childhood. A highly recommended read for natives and sincere transplants alike!

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is a Mets fan from the Bronx, and has a beautiful wife and two amazing kids. He won some poetry slams, founded a reading series, co-authored a book of poetry, and still writes when the mood hits him and he has the time. He prefers Pumpkin and India Pale Ales or Skyy Vodka with cranberry, still reads comic books, and hasn't completely let go of his plans for world domination.

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Keywords : Reviews, bronx, yankees, baseball, politics, blackout, 1977, son of sam, ed koch

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