Reviews
This is a non-fiction book focusing on the history of New York's architecture, explaining how this city architectually exploded into what it is now. It's from the 70's so it's not exactly up to date, and the writing style lives up to it's "delirious" title sometimes. Not every chapter is captivating, but altogether it's a very interesting history lesson on New York. I was especially surprised by the rich history of Coney Island, considering the sad (but somehow beautiful) little beach it is nowadays.
There are some very interesting historical tidbits scattered throughout this work, and plenty of architectural diagrams and historical photos to supplement the heady, dense prose. For every sublime, enlightened passage, there are about five paragraphs which manage to revel almost nothing at all that isn't obvious -- but they are redeemed by Koolhaus's surreal, generous insights. The energy of this "manifesto" is compelling and infectious. Koolhaas is an anthropologist as much as an architectural theorist. His genius lies in his ability to recontextualize the structures of the city, throwing things we take for granted into sharp relief, as if he were a member of an alien race observing urban humanity from afar.
