The author, a professor of sociology at City University of New York, grew up mostly in the Big Apple and has spent much of the past decade sailing its waterways in a rehabilitated 24-foot catboat built on Cape Cod in 1910. He offers a cook's tour of his home town from the water, threading around the southeast end of Long Island, into Upper New York Bay and the East River, and up to Long Island Sound. Along the way we get slivers of history, from British executions by chaining prisoners to rocks before the rising tide (in colonial times), to spectacular ferry disasters; from the black American sailors impressed by the British in the War of 1812 who refused to serve and were sent to English prisons to the industrial degradation and reclaiming of Jamaica Bay and Gowanus Canal, and the many legacies of Robert Moses. It's a light, charming read, with few tales lasting more than a page or three. A half dozen hand-drawn maps guide the reader unfamiliar with the area along the way.
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The review of this Book prepared by David Loftus
