DW Gibson, The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century, New York: The Overlook Press, 2015.
For years, journalists, policymakers, critics, and historians have tried to explain just what happens when new money and new residents flow into established neighborhoods―and yet we've had very little access to the human side of gentrification. The Edge Becomes the Center captures, in their own words, the stories of the many kinds of people―brokers, buyers, sellers, renters, landlords, artists, contractors, politicians, and everyone in between―who are shaping and being shaped by the new New York City. In this extraordinary oral history, DW Gibson takes gentrification out of the op-ed columns and textbooks and brings it to life, showing us what urban change looks and feels like by exposing us to the voices of the people living through it. Drawing on the plainspoken, casually authoritative tradition of Jane Jacobs and Studs Terkel, The Edge Becomes the Center is an inviting and essential portrait of the way we live now.
多年来，记者、政策制定者、评论家和历史学家一直试图解释当新资金和新居民涌入既有社区时会发生什么——然而我们很少能接触到士绅化的人性面。《边缘成为中心》通过当事人的亲口讲述，捕捉了形塑当今纽约、同时也被纽约所塑造的各类人物的故事——房地产经纪人、买家、卖家、租客、房东、艺术家、承包商、政治家，以及介于其中的所有人。在这部非同寻常的口述史中，吉布森将士绅化从专栏评论和教科书中解放出来，展现了都市变迁的真实面貌，让我们听到亲历这一过程的人们的声音。延续简·雅各布斯和斯塔兹·特克尔朴实而富有权威的传统，《边缘成为中心》生动而本质地刻画了我们当下的生活方式。A noisy, tender tour of New York much in the mode of Studs Terkel… Mr. Gibson is a skilled and sensitive interlocutor with an eye for the revealing gesture… Mr. Gibson lets the city speak for itself, and it speaks with charm, swagger and heartening resilience.A generous, vigorous, and enlightening look at class and space in New York; it ought to be required reading… Gibson has found vibrant humanity in a subject that is, paradoxically, lacking in it… The Edge Becomes the Center raises critical questions about what we expect from our cities and how groups become communities. Mainly, though, it’s a joy to read, its chorus of voices a reminder of oral history’s power. Anyone who cares about the shape and gestalt of life in New York―and anyone who believes in cities as centers of culture―will come away moved.Whatever I thought of New York gentrification before reading The Edge Becomes the Center, it’s all up in the air now, dispersed into the dazzling, extremely intelligent, funny, expert multifarious speech of the people DW Gibson interviewed for this amazing book. Reading it has transformed my understanding of the urban experience generally, humanizing and explaining, brilliantly, what before had seemed intimidating, abstract, even monstrous. A piece of masterful human scale architecture in itself, The Edge Becomes the Center feels like ‘a new part of New York,’ a vital new center of the city’s perpetual conversation with itself and the world.—Francisco Goldman, author of The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City ChronicleThis might be the most important city book of the year, essential reading for anyone who cares about New York, or life in the metropolis anywhere. Gibson has managed to get a diverse group of New Yorkers to open up their hearts and minds about gentrification, the defining civic issue of our time. I raced through the book, traveling with Gibson as he surfs from story to story in the great, imperiled city. A riveting, timely portrait of the greatest, richest, unfairest city in the world.—Suketu Mehta, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and bestselling author of Maximum CityAs, building by building, the ‘undiscovered’ neighborhoods of New York City are assimilated into the portfolios of hedge funds and the beneficiaries of inequality, DW Gibson captures precarious voices that might otherwise go unheard forever. This is an indispensable, enthralling work of social history.—Joseph O’Neill, PEN/Faulkner Award winning and New York Times bestselling author of The Dog and Netherland21st century New York, which Bill de Blasio decried as A Tale of Two Cities, has yet to reveal its Dickens. But with The Edge Becomes the Center, DW Gibson makes a strong claim to being its Studs Terkel. A riveting exploration of gentrification and its discontents, as told by a refreshingly panoramic chorus of voices.—Mark Binelli, author of Detroit City Is the Place to Be这是一次喧嚣而温情的纽约之旅，颇具特克尔风格……吉布森先生是一位技巧纯熟、富有同理心的对话者，善于捕捉富有启示性的细节……吉布森让这座城市自己发声，而它以魅力、豪迈和令人振奋的韧性诉说着。这是对纽约阶级和空间的一次慷慨、有力而富有启发性的审视；它理应成为必读之作……吉布森在一个看似缺乏人性的主题中发现了充满活力的人性……《边缘成为中心》提出了关于我们对城市的期待以及群体如何成为社区的关键问题。更重要的是，阅读这本书令人愉悦，其中众多的声音提醒着我们口述史的力量。任何关心纽约生活形态和精神的人——以及任何相信城市是文化中心的人——都会被深深打动。在读过《边缘成为中心》之前，我对纽约士绅化的所有认知现在都变得不确定了，它们被DW吉布森在这本神奇的书中采访的人们所发出的令人眼花缭乱、极其智慧、幽默、专业而多样的声音所冲散。阅读这本书彻底改变了我对城市经验的理解，它将之前看似令人生畏、抽象甚至可怖的事物变得人性化，并作出了精彩的解释。这本书本身就像一座精心打造的人文尺度建筑，感觉像是“纽约的一个新组成部分”，是这座城市与自身及世界持续对话中的重要新中心。——弗朗西斯科·戈德曼，《内环：墨西哥城编年史》作者这可能是今年最重要的城市主题著作，是任何关心纽约或都市生活的人的必读之作。吉布森成功地让形形色色的纽约人敞开心扉，谈论士绅化这个我们这个时代最重要的城市议题。我急切地读完这本书，跟随吉布森在这座伟大而危机四伏的城市中，从一个故事游走到另一个故事。这是对世界上最伟大、最富有、最不平等的城市的一幅扣人心弦、切中时弊的肖像。——苏凯图·梅塔，普利策奖决选作家，畅销书《极限城市》作者当纽约“未被发现的”街区一座接一座地被纳入对冲基金的投资组合和不平等的受益者名下时，DW吉布森捕捉了那些原本可能永远消失的脆弱声音。这是一部不可或缺的、引人入胜的社会史著作。——约瑟夫·奥尼尔，PEN/福克纳奖得主、《纽约时报》畅销书作家，《看门狗》和《尼德兰》作者21世纪的纽约被比尔·德布拉西奥称为“双城记”，但尚未出现它的狄更斯。然而通过《边缘成为中心》，DW吉布森有力地证明了他是纽约的斯塔兹·特克尔。这是对士绅化及其不满的引人入胜的探索，通过令人耳目一新的全景式人声讲述。DW Gibson is the author of Not Working: People Talk About Losing a Job and Finding Their Way in Today’s Changing Economy. His work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The New York Observer, The Daily Beast, BOMB, and The Caravan. Gibson serves as director of Writers Omi at Ledig House in Ghent, New York, which is part of the Omi International Arts Center. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.DW吉布森是《无业：人们谈论失业和在当今变化的经济中寻找出路》一书的作者。他的作品曾发表在《纽约时报》、《纽约观察家》、《每日野兽》、《BOMB》和《商旅》等出版物上。吉布森担任纽约根特奥米国际艺术中心下属雷迪格之家作家项目总监。他与妻子和女儿居住在纽约市。