This book was endlessly entertaining for lovers of thrifting and antiquing, I found myself utterly transported by it. I loved all of the details included that helped me to sink into the story.

Really interesting look at the vendors and adjacent folks of the Chelsea flea in New York. I liked this quite a lot more than expected.

The Golden Flea is a weirdly charming and engaging story of collecting, collectors, and flea markets against the backdrop of the author's particular obsession with the now-defunct Chelsea Flea Market in Manhattan. Released 21st April 2020 by W. W. Norton & co., it's 224 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.

This is not in any way a how-to guide, there are no tips or tricks for finding hidden treasures. This is a direct and simply told story of the author's experiences with the flea market and a slice of life memoir of some of the buyers and sellers he encounters along the way. The story, I think, is indelibly American, and more specifically New York. Especially the interactions and language are indubitably New York, this story couldn't be told in this way in San Jose, CA or London, or Paris.

I'm a collector and obsessive in my (very niche) habits. I love (and restore, and use) fountain pens, embroidery samplers (especially English, 17th-18th century), and books. I understand the heartbreak and thrill of the chase and the stupendous glee of the win. This author definitely "gets it" too.

The language is rough and often perjorative, but not gratuitous. The author has some good points about mental health and potentially obsessive collecting and the meta-narrative is well wrapped inside the story of a guy who really really liked to go to the flea market and the people he encountered on his sojourns.

I found it engaging and worthwhile. I can understand readers wanting a different book being disappointed in it. Four stars for me (one of the weirdos asking innocently, "do you happen to have any old linens or embroidered pillowcases or hankies" at the crack of dawn on a Saturday).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is reprinted here with permission.

Michael Rips grew up viewing most objects as contaminated: "The antique was a cesspool, and flea markets its tributary." His wife's family enjoyed garage sales, and one weekend he was forced by the heat to leave the car where he was waiting. The poster he discovered at the sale began his transition from artifact abhorrer to dedicated denizen of the famed market in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, the subject of his fascinating memoir, The Golden Flea.

To understand Rips's journey, one must understand the history and allure of "the flea." A staple in New York, the constellation of secondhand markets is among the best known, "widely regarded for the treasures to be found there." It rose from the vacuum left by the garment industry, which filled with the underground clubs, prostitutes, artists and junkies that flowed into the neighborhood in the '60s and beyond.

The flea was a meeting place for the various elements of Chelsea, where rare yet inexpensive items could be found to decorate apartments or provide inspiration, and people could display, create and re-create themselves. The colorful history of the neighborhood, the flea and the items sold there almost pale in comparison to the sellers, pickers and buyers that populate it. These people became part of the fabric of Rips's life, even as he needed to step away for a time due to more than a tinge of obsession. Discovering the flea through Rips's experience is magnificent, but the human influence on the transactions (Q: "Do you know what this is made of?" A: "It's made of get-the-fuck-out-of here.") give it true beauty.

STREET SENSE: This book is nutty in the best possible way and it makes me kick myself for not hitting this market while in New York. The wares sound crazily varied and fabulous (and sometimes fabulously bizarre), but the people and community make it spectacular. Some of the conversations in this memoir had me rolling. I know nothing about art or antiques other than what I like, so don't let you keep that away, that's not what this book is about. It's a look at the people, place and things that made New York City's Chelsea flea market one of the most famous (and outrageous) in the world.

COVER NERD SAYS: This cover attracted me despite my lack of art knowledge. I love the color and though I lack art sense I love frames. It made me curious. This is a hard book to describe through a cover, yet this did a pretty good job.

I found the portrait of New York's Chelsea Flea Market and the people in it very interesting. It's full of very quirky folks and interesting objects. The two come together in a compelling book.

It takes a village. . . .to raise us up. Not just the littles. The Bigs, too.

The Golden Flea: A Story of Obsession and Collecting is indeed a story about obsession and collecting, but it is more about a particular community, over many years. It is a love letter, to be specific, with details of all the favorite moments in the affair, with all the favorite characters - endearing main characters, quirky sidekicks, dependable supporting cast members, mysterious shades, and a few if not wicked then at least avoidable notables - and all with their own super and micro powers. Where can they be found? At the Chelsea Flea Market on the west side of Manhattan.

This book is an absolute joy to read! I enjoyed the writing, which kept me interested and curious. The end was satisfying, that once finished kept this reader thinking, googling and wondering how to check these flea markets out the next time one is in New York (or anywhere? Maybe there are more of these in other cities?). It had never crossed my 21st century mind to seek out places like this - in spite of the fact that years ago I used to frequent the drive-in swap meets of Southern California. . . .so it brought my own secret obsessions and odd collection memories hard up against my brain cells: Smells one tastes; Tastes one feels in ears and bones; Luscious visions that fill surprising parts; Sounds that break the heart while recognizing something eternal, spiritual, evocatively familiar. . . all from that big, bustling movement of individuals in a community that returns to this place day in and day out, and all for a specific purpose. . . to share their obsessions, their collections, their special tokens and objects of power. . . .uniquely separate, wholly complete, constantly changing.

4.5 stars for the inspiration resurrecting old desires and birthing new ones. . . .

A sincere thank you to Michael Rips, W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.

As a reader who can't pass a flea without stopping, I fell in love with this book from page 1. Rich characters, envy-inducing fictional flea finds.....it's the perfect stopgap until we can all be back out in the world, shopping our favorite markets again!

I'm trying to gather my thoughts about this book. The Golden Flea written by Michael Rips is a memoir of sorts. By that I mean it is a memoir of a man, a group of people, a way of life, and a place. That is asking a lot of one book.

Many times I wondered how his family felt about the "Flea". Mr. Rips spent every weekend attending the Flea, visiting friends, spending money, a lot of money it seems, bringing home a lot of stuff. Much of it sounds at best weird, some repulsive. I'm sorry, I really don't mean to insult anyone's beliefs, I don't, but I can't ever imagine myself being OK with my husband bringing home any object, religious or merely "artistic" that contained even the smallest amount of "personal matter" (my poor attempt to be delicate). My objections are not of a religious nature but rather of a sanitary nature. I also would not like to live in a situation where every item was crowded in, with no opportunity to appreciate any one thing. It sounds very claustrophobic and loud. To have that situation play out several times; the crowded space, the objects periodically being moved to a storage facility just to fill the apartment up again AND having the "privilege" to pay to store it all, in several facilities? No, not this gal, I support my husband in all of his endeavours and interests, I give him lots of space, lots of room to be himself but I truly think that situation would be very difficult for me and I would not be able to thrive, heck, I think I would disappear into myself if not into the displays. I would definitely feel less than.

The people we encounter in The Golden Flea can be a fascinating and motley crew of people who had found a place where their idiosyncrasies are , if not always accepted, at least tolerated. They have created their own family and the Flea is their ancestral home. I do wonder where these people are now and also where people like them have gathered now that the Flea no longer exists.

Title: The Golden Flea
Author: Michael Rips
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

For decades, the Chelsea Flea Market on the west side of Manhattan drew shoppers seeking treasures in booths crammed with vintage dresses, ancient swords, glass eyeballs, Afghan rugs, West African fetish dolls, Old Master paintings, and more

Writing with a beguiling style that has won praise from Joan Didion and Susan Orlean, Rips introduces the Flea’s lovable, oddball vendors, including the Haberdasher, who only sells to those he deems worthy; the Art Dealer, whose obscure paintings often go for enormous sums; the Troubadour, who sings to attract customers; as well pickers and collectors of every stripe. As Rips’ passion for collecting grows, and the Flea’s last days loom, he undertakes a quest to prove the provenance of a mysterious painting that might just be the one.

The Golden Flea was so far outside my normal reading taste that I’m not even sure why it caught my eye—and I LOVED it! I was intrigued from the very first page, and I ended up being totally captivated. (Except the fetishes. Those were just gross.) Rips’ writing brings to life vibrant people and a colorful setting—in a completely unexpected place. The characters are quirky but fascinating, and I was sad to realize the Chelsea Flea Market and its inhabitants are a thing of the past.

Michael Rips is an author, lawyer, and supporter of the arts. The Golden Flea is his new book.

(Galley courtesy of W.W. Norton & Company in exchange for an honest review.)

Take a walk through The Flea and meet all of the weird and fascinating vendors. I loved meandering along seeing and poking here and there while overhearing fascinating snatches of conversation. Absolutely pick up this fascinating book and prepare to savor this wonderful story. Happy reading!

I love stories about flea markets and niche collecting. This is what drew me into the book. I found that the execution was lacking though. I found myself fairly bored with the writing style of the book. It just took me totally out of the narrative. I loved the concept and the general story of what happened was good but I was so turned off by the way The Golden Flea was written.

As the author and guide to the world of the material world, Rips wrote about his developing obsession and curiosity with objects, As a virtual travel companion, I too became obsessed with his growing fascination. The book soon became a unique journey into the exclusive world of collectors and dealers, their personalities and backgrounds. Personally I have been drawn to objects and their history and have collected all my life. Rips supplies all the contrived back stories of the objects that he and others pursued and his writing style made me relish turning every page. I intend to find his previous and future writings as I now have a lasting interest in him as a writer of beautiful prosse.

I am not a lover of the flea market but I do have a modest collection of vintage bakeware that puts me in the path of more rabid collectors. This was a great peek into the fervor and drama of the collecting and flea market world. I do feel like the author was a little too personally involved in the scene--perhaps it should have been more of a memoir than just a book about flea markets/collecting.

I have loved antique stores, flea markets, garage sales, etc. for my whole life, and I'm quite surprised I never managed to go to this particular flea market during the years I lived in New York (I spent most of my time at one on the Upper West Side). So I am squarely in the demographic for this book.

There's a real tension between being the right person to write a book because you're so immersed in the topic and being the wrong person to write a book because you're too immersed in the topic. I feel this book suffered for being the latter case. I needed some details to ground this book, what year were we ever in, to start, things I would have wanted to be included were I editing this book.

There's something interesting here about collecting vs. hoarding and interest and obsession. There are also the ideas about what is value and who is the arbiter of it and what is authenticity and all of that. I don't think I had any particularly new thoughts in those arenas while reading this, even if they are interesting things to think about. And I think the author is so caught up in the objects he collected and the people he surrounded himself by that he spent too much space self mythologizing and not enough time being interesting. This is a quirk of some people I know IRL, those who think being in the company of interesting people confers interestingness to them.

I wanted this to be tighter; a book about a flea market that meanders like a flea market is kind of a stale idea to me, but I still found some patches of delight in the objects and people crowded together in the flea that kept me from putting it down.

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

How did a book with such an interesting premise lose me so fast?? I was highly intrigued by the concept here - my husband is an avowed treasure hunter of old stuff, so I've spent some time investigating flea markets. They are nearly always populated by a strange slate of personalities and I've often wondered about the back story behind them and their stuff. I figured this book was a great chance to peek behind the curtain, and stayed out eagerly. Unfortunately, I found the writing somewhat flat in tone and the personalities more grating than quirky. There was less emphasis on the unusual nature of the items OR people and more detail that felt gratuitous and overly descriptive - but in a way that actually stifled my interest rather than stoked it. For such a short book, this one felt like a slog and was just not for me...

3.75 stars. This book is definitely for the hunters and pickers among us. I for one love the 'potential' of a good flea market and it was interesting to see how the author, #Michael Rips could capture the quirky characters, the dank smell and the obsession of 'just one more box' that can possess the flea market attendee. #TheGoldenFlea was detailed and loaded with stories of the history of many items. But were they just stories made up or were they truly based on fact, that, is where the magic of a flea market grabs you.
Some sections were a bit too long, SO much detail, that I moved into the 'I don't care arena just tell me the price'. There was one notable description that was almost an entire page long! But that is indeed how many vendors are in a flea market.
I will be writing further about The Golden Flea on my blog, because the people who filled the pages and the stories they told are worth a further look. They are Life.

I was excited to read this book. Collectors are fascinating. But for some reason this left me a little bored.

"The Golden Flea" ~ authored by .Michel Rips, Executive Director Of The Art Students' League of NYC. Easily read it. In an afternoon; and pretty much so because it is both delightful and fascinating. At one time, the largest flea market in the world, The Chelsea Flea Market in the West side of Manhattan. Behold the treasures and step inside the vendors'' booths. Meet the some of the vendors, themselves such as Paul, Steve, and Jokkho eccentric and inspiring, to only name a few, offerings from trinkets to glass eyeballs, silver flasks, lithographs, and Old Masters art. The book is enchanting and magical with history.

I pretty much read this in one sitting.

While the subject matter was fascinating, I found the writing to be way tooooo slow. The author did not make me feel as though I was IN the story. When he describes (in absolute detail) what is happening, he made the story sound dry, dry, dry.

This book had so much potential and could have been so good, But the endless details and minute to minute descriptions were just too much for me.

This is a very interesting look at the unique flea market scene in NYC. The author was seduced by the treasures of the flea market and became not only a collector, but a confidante of many of the denizens of the Chelsea Flea Market.

The book is full of delightful anecdotes about objects and people who inhabited the market. The treasures that were found here make for great stories.

I suspect I was more interested than a typical reader because I am a New Yorker and frequent auctions. I’m still seeking a treasure!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this fun book.