Synopses & Reviews
"Sarah Schulman, as always, hits the nail on the head. I can't imagine a more insightful probe into gentrification and its inhumane consequences. Everyone needs to read this book."Martin Duberman, author of
StonewallSarah Schulman's The Gentrification of the Mind is a bulwark against the collective loss of memory. AIDS, gentrification, the struggle for gay rights, the class war that has driven entire communities of artists, immigrants, and outsiders from the neighborhoods they createdall these things have been erased by the official culture. Schulman's book will make you rage and weep, and thenjust maybeorganize.”Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York
"Hard-headed, sensitive, and informed, this book will make the confused world of urban redevelopment and gentrification make notably more sense. Schulman has a mind as clear as a bell in evening. You'll be glad you read it. I was."Samuel R. Delany, author of Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders
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“This bracing, powerful, and well-reasoned work reaffirms the authors stature as a distinctive American woman of letters. . . . Highly recommended.”
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“Teeming with ideas, necessary commentary, refreshing connections and examination of the status quo.”
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“Its a beautifully written screed (not a bad word in my books). . . . Schulman shines when she taps her deep knowledge of the AIDS movement. . . . She can be brilliant.”
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“The author, a true woman of letters, makes a persuasive case.”
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“This is why the book is so successful and demands our attention: through a focus on the pulse of the queer community (of the 80s), it touches upon the individual condition (of today).”
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“This is a very good, very sad book about the aftershock of the AIDS crisis in New York. Schulman is a truly gifted thinker.”
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“The book thats inspired me more than any other this year is Sarah Schulmans Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination, a razor-sharp memoir of New York in the heyday of the AIDS crisis.”
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“A brilliant critique of contemporary culture. . . . This is the most important book of the year.”
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“Schulmans personal recollections... are sharp and vivid.”
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“Teeming with ideas, necessary commentary, refreshing connections and examination of the status quo.” Jason King - Slate
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“Schulmans personal recollections... are sharp and vivid.” Jeff Miller - Cult MTL
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“The author, a true woman of letters, makes a persuasive case.” Alex Frank - Fader Magazine
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“A polemic, a passionate, provocative . . . account of disappearance, forgetfulness and untimely death.”
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“No book has rocked my world in recent times more than Sarah Schulmans ‘The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination . . . [it ranks] among the best alternative histories published in the last 50 years.”
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“A galvanizing account of the transformation, both external and mental, in New York City life.”
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“The essence of what Schulman calls gentrification is to pretend that privilege and difference do not exist and that any attempt to remember that they do is mere ‘political correctness rather than facing up to the reality to who does what to whom. To forget these things, is to deceive ourselves—and Schulmans harsh, bitter prose is a useful way of waking ourselves up.”
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"The most rousing thing I've read this year." Olivia Laing - New Statesman
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"It's that time of year, when everyone is compiling their Best Of 2013 lists. . . . Do we even need to say again, that Sarah Schulman wins the year with Gentrification of the Mind?" Jessa Crispin - Bookslut
Synopsis
In this gripping memoir of the AIDS years (19811996), Sarah Schulman recalls how much of the rebellious queer culture, cheap rents, and a vibrant downtown arts movement vanished almost overnight to be replaced by gay conservative spokespeople and mainstream consumerism. Schulman takes us back to her Lower East Side and brings it to life, filling these pages with vivid memories of her avant-garde queer friends and dramatically recreating the early years of the AIDS crisis as experienced by a political insider. Interweaving personal reminiscence with cogent analysis, Schulman details her experience as a witness to the loss of a generations imagination and the consequences of that loss.
About the Author
Sarah Schulman, Distinguished Professor of English at CUNY, Staten Island, is the author of nine novels, five books of nonfiction, plays, and films.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Making Record from Memory
Part I. Understanding the Past
1. The Dynamics of Death and Replacement
2. The Gentrification of AIDS
3. Realizing That Theyre Gone
Part II. The Consequences Of Loss
4. The Gentrification of Creation
5. The Gentrification of Gay Politics
6. The Gentrification of Our Literature
Conclusion: DegentrificationThe Pleasure of Being
Uncomfortable