City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts

Summary (from the publishers): The spirit and beauty of the world's most loved city parks, captured in breathtaking photographs and the evocative words of eighteen celebrated writers and influential figures, including Ian Frazier, Bill Clinton, Pico Iyer, Xadie Smith, and Colm Tóibín.

André Aciman • Jonathan Alter • John Banville • Bill Clinton • Candice Bergen • Norman Foster • Amanda Foreman • Ian Frazier • Andrew Sean Greer • Amanda Harlech • Pico Iyer • Nicole Krauss • David Lida • Jan Morris • Zadie Smith • Ahdaf Soueif • Colm Tóibín • Simon Winchester

In City Parks, eighteen writers reflect on various parks that hold a special significance for them, sharing personal moments they associate with them. Andrew Sean Greer eloquently paints a portrait of first love in the Presidio; André Aciman muses on the passage of time and the changing face of New York as viewed from the High Line; Nicole Krauss describes the real citizens of Prospect Park-dogs!; Simon Winchester takes readers along on his adventures in the Maidan; and Bill Clinton describes his affection for Dumbarton Oaks.

Intensely personal, yet joined by overlapping themes of memory and the unstoppable passage of time, these essays create a warm portrait of parks around the world - from London to Brooklyn, Calcutta to Chicago, Paris to San Francisco - and offer a unique, thoughtful vision of their significance both to the individual and society itself. Beautifully illustrated with color and black-and-white images, City Parks is a literary anthology and collector's item that illuminates our personal histories and public experiences.

Review: I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins. In parks in Cairo, Florence, Moscow, Berlin, London, Dublin, Paris, Chicago, Washington D.C., Kyoto, Calcutta, Barcelona, Mexico City, San Francisco, Brooklyn,  and New York City, this book shares the public outdoor spaces that humans share around the globe. Each collection of photographs is preceded by a brief essay by well-known individuals including Zadie Smith, Bill Clinton, Simon Winchester, and Nicole Krauss. 

Like any curated collection by numerous authors, this seems like a mixed bag; I liked some essays better than others. Yet on the whole this was a great collection, and the photographs were beautiful. This made me reflect on the experience of city parks, which is truly a global one, and what it means to the many who enjoy these public spaces.

My favorite essay is that by Andrew Sean Greer, writing on The Presidio in San Francisco. His writing is evocative and transports the reader to a particular time and place, so that you can picture being young and carefree and in the heart of the city's park. "Stop there; use the untrustworthy handbrake. Turn and look at him smiling at you, the water gleaming behind him. You are twenty years old. It is summer and somehow hot as you always imagined California to be. Sometimes, you get the day you want" (263). 

The irony of public parks is that they hold deeply personal memories and experiences yet they are a public place that belongs to the collective group. In this respect, I think this collection of essays, that allows numerous individual voices to be heard, perfectly suits the nature of parks - there is more than one way to enjoy, remember, and write about parks. For the writers in this book, parks are about leisure and enjoying nature in the midst of urban life. They are a haven, a place to make memories, and to spend time alone or with others. "Quiet ecstasy and sweet content, why are not all days like you?" (271). 

Stars: 3