- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (July 22 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0609809318
- ISBN-13: 978-0609809310
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.2 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#190,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #83 in Books > Travel > United States > States > New York
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This book's intriguing topic and delightful presentation by its knowledgeable and eccentric authors will enthrall New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike. Deyo and Leibowitz, editors at Jinx, a zine devoted to the urban exploration movement, illumine what drives them to explore cities' infrastructure, the places few consider going (including sewage systems, subway tunnels and bridge spans). A charming pastiche of Alice in Wonderland and The X Files, this is both a paean to New York and a chronology of a love affair with the unusual. The authors take readers on a hike to Manhattan from the Bronx via the Croton Aqueduct, which was one of the major engineering feats of the 19th century, providing water for most New Yorkers. They also traverse the tunnels under Riverside Park to find the so-called mole people who live in the Amtrak system and to seek out graffiti artists. A semi-break-in takes readers into the Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital. Other treks include exploring a condemned building in East Harlem, a nondiplomatic maneuver at the United Nations and climbing to the summit of the George Washington Bridge. Rife with literary quotations, historical and scientific tidbits, political and social commentary plus a plethora of details about the explorations the authors and their strange cadre have made (despite the muck and mire, the men always wear suits and ties and the women cocktail dresses), this smart, quirky book will delight spelunkers, couch potatoes and all in between. 25 line drawings, 25 b&w photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School--The authors are editors of Jinx,a magazine devoted to urban exploration--or, as one explorer puts it, "going places you're not supposed to go." The book is structured around 10 "missions" that the two took on in the summer of 2001, and lovingly describes their failures (attempting to slog from the Bronx to Manhattan entirely underground) as well as their successes (flying the Jinx flag at the U.N. building). The astonishing, delicious twist is that these operatives are far from the pranksters they might sound like. As if they were touring the Galápagos, they are careful to preserve the dignity of the spaces they explore; they may admire beautiful graffiti, but they'd neverleave any. On missions they wear Men in Black-style suits and sunglasses (the occasional female wears a cocktail dress). Most importantly, though, they know and cherish New York history. They speak so excitedly and reverently of the city--how it was formed and who formed it--that they come off more like endearingly geeky archaeologists than hip adventurers. And their awed enthusiasm is infectious, increasing readers' sensitivity to the urban environments around them. A thoughtful anomaly of a book, sure to intrigue and surprise YA readers.--Emily Lloyd, Rehoboth Beach Public Library, DE
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
NEW YORK CITY stands anchored in five-hundred-million-year-old igneous bedrock, in compressed strata of shale and stone. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
NEW YORK CITY stands anchored in five-hundred-million-year-old igneous bedrock, in compressed strata of shale and stone. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
my favorite book I've read this year,
By The Kid (Kansas City, MO) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Invisible Frontier: Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins, and Rooftops of Hidden New York (Paperback)
Just wanted to let anyone out there know that this is indeed a wonderful, well-written book that's great fun to read. It's so exciting to think about all the secret locations that surround us, and how adventure and exploration can still live in this day and age. It's inspired me to stop taking my hometown of Kansas City for granted and to start my own explorations here.Highly recommended.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great fun,
By A Customer
This review is from: Invisible Frontier: Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins, and Rooftops of Hidden New York (Paperback)
What a treat this book is! Funny, erudite, exciting, mysterious. The history is offered with great partiality, and I found frequent occasions to disagree and even shout at the pages, yet all is offered in good faith and sound reasoning. The authors show great humility and humor, constantly subjecting themselves to the harsher part of their wit. Despite their courageous, at times even heroic, achievements, they are far quicker to self-ridicule than self-praise, and they tarry over their few failures while lightly dismissing their successes. Their team is a formidable one, and each personality shines through the tale. I read it in a day.
1.0 out of 5 stars
A painful failure --,
By A Customer
This review is from: Invisible Frontier: Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins, and Rooftops of Hidden New York (Paperback)
Woe to those who waste their money on this book! It seems well-packaged, but then you open the cover... the first lines are so egregiously pompous and over-written that the reader thinks that it must be an introductory joke. But it goes on, and on! If you ever need to provide someone with an example to define the word "turgid", hand them this book. It seems completely unedited (the editor must have given up after the first paragraph) and is thus rife with contradictions, both literal (after a boastful paragraph about being well-dressed unlike the common man, the writer then describes his cheap shoes; after bragging about lugging 70 pounds of camera equipment, the writers fail to produce any interesting photos) and thematic (the self-described "agents" set their own goals... and then fail them over and over). Particularly ludicrous is their Harlem adventure, where they bypass exactly the buildings they seek in favor of a conveniently accessible construction site. As an urban explorer (mercilessly unaffiliated with such buffoons) I appreciate the intention to link contemporary infrastructure to historical or mythical realms, but these writers fail miserably; they may see themselves in those domains, but they come off as a group of clumsy, geekish, petty trespassers.
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