3.5 Wow! What a story! I was blown away with this one, Donna Florio's story was insane and really about her life growing up and living in New York during one of the most iconic time's in the 1970's history. I'm not a major nonfiction fan but this one was very unique.

If you love NY and its history this one is for you!
Thank you to Netgalley and NYU books for the advanced copy.

Read this if you:
· have ever wondered what secret lives your neighbours lead
· want to know what it’s like to be born and raised in New York City
· are curious about how a neighbourhood (and the people living in it) change and evolve over many decades

Synopsis:
This book is a memoir of life in a dynamic New York City neighbourhood, Greenwich Village. The author chronicles life on Bank Street where she was born, raised, and still lives decades later. Bank Street was also home to many other interesting characters whose stories the author also details. Raised by free-spirited parents and neighbours, Donna Florio experienced life among many different people, from activists to rockstars. She uses this book to detail their many lives and the culture that once filled Bank Street.

My thoughts on the book:
In a time where travel has been non-existent for over a year, I felt like this book really gave me what I’ve been missing. I felt pulled in by Donna’s descriptions of both her life and of Bank Street itself. I did find that it was more enjoyable to read about some of her neighbours than others but all of their stories really painted a thorough picture of the neighbourhood. I also appreciated Donna’s extensive knowledge about the neighbourhood and her neighbours. She was able to describe who they were and how they changed over time, which I found to be a very interesting piece to Bank Street’s puzzle.

I was quite intrigued by this book as I have an interest in all things New York. A memoir is not my usual genre, however I enjoyed the insights into growing up in New York and the changes in the Neighbourhood. I did find it a bit hard to follow as the time line was a bit all over the place. Overall and enjoyable read and one that I would not have considered before. #GrowingUpBankStreet #NetGalley

I just loved this book, a real gem. It’s a vibrant compelling memoir about growing up and living on Bank Street, Greenwich Village, a place peopled by an often eccentric, always interesting, occasionally even tragic collection of vividly drawn characters, from the unknown to the well-known, from Broadway stars to AIDS victims, John Lennon to Sid Vicious, Jane Jacobs to Frank McCourt. All human life is here in all its multiplicity and variety. Honest, warm-hearted, non-judgemental, it’s a delightful and engrossing read.

This is a wonderful assessment of what it's like to grow up in the city. Yes, I'm referring to New York City but that goes without saying for anyone who lives in the area. No, I have never heard of Donna Florio before but I have certainly heard of many of her neighbors! I enjoyed her stories about growing up in the village with neighbors like Charles Kurult, Alan Arkin, Bella Abzug, and yes, even John and Yoko for a while. How cool is it that Frank McCourt was your teacher (prior to writing Angela's Ashes) at Stuvesant and growing up among a blend of races, classes, and businesses, a true melting pot that was the inspiration behind a book about neighborhoods. How interesting that the brownstone at one point housed a serial killer which was the basis for 'The Alienist'. Donna's personal stories are all about the people she grew up with. Anyone who love New York will enjoy this story. #netgalley

Bank Street is brought to life by Donna Florio's well-written, detail-packed memoir.
It is written as a series of character studies that you can dip into as you wish. Her love of some of the people she knew comes across strongly and you can feel the connections she built with the residents of her block. She doesn't sugar coat anything either- just walking home was a risk as she grew up.
Donna herself seems just as much of a Bank Street legend as any of the people - Sid Vicious, Auntie Mame - she writes about. She's warm, fiery at times and obviously loved by those around her. She doesn't pull any punches when she talks about her parents and her family life which makes you feel weirdly protective over her! Her honesty and her authority as a writer over her subject is absolute. Donna Florio is the ultimate tour guide- visiting Bank Street is now on my bucket list!
It didn't grip me as it really felt like a series of essays that could be taken separately- there was no urge to read on immediately. It is one of those books you can read and enjoy at your leisure rather than devour in one go. Well worth a look.

This book is an interesting New York City memoir. In particular, it is the memoir of one particular home on Bank Street.

The author had interesting parents and even more unique interesting neighbors and experiences.

By interviewing previous and present neighbors, Ms Florio is able to present a realistic and vivid portrait of 105 Bank Street. She delves into the history. There have even been famous names living there.

I have only ever made one very brief visit to New York. I was awed by what I saw, this book makes me want to return and spend some quality time there. It is such a unique city with a personality of its own. I think I could have appreciated this book even more if I was more familiar with the area.

I even went so far as to look up a Google street view of this home on Bank Street. It is shown on the cover but I wanted a better view.

I found the retelling of the AIDS crisis and 9/11 particularly interesting.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The views expressed in this review are strictly my own.

I loved this book. The author manages to convey an authentic sense of time and place, with well written prose that will make you wish you lived in Greenwich Village in the fifties, sixties, and seventies. What fun it would have been to know the eccentric characters of Donna Florio's neighborhood.

This is an enjoyable book...fun times and some not so much. This book was sent to me by Netgalley on Kindle for review...it is nice to read about the lives of others and understand what growing up is about...enjoy this one.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this beautifully written memoir. I've never been to Bank St or NYC, but the author made me feel as if I were immersed in the Village. She brought so many characters to life within the pages. You feel like you knew all of them after hearing their stories.

NetGalley ARC - Donna Florio’s debut novel is a stunning memoir full of tales from her childhood, growing up on Bank Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in New York City, as well as stories about her friends and neighbors collected over the years. Florio details the neighborhood and how it has evolved since her childhood; there are also several stories that take place before she was there to experience them, leading to a stunning history of the neighborhood over the entire 20th century. These vibrant narratives show the connection and community of this neighborhood, where the author grew up and has continued to live into her adulthood.

Arguably some of my favorite chapters include her childhood, where she shares in length about her time performing for the Metropolitan, which reminded me of Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls, one of my favorite books.

I was skeptical about whether or not I would enjoy this book because my initial understanding of Greenwich Village in the modern era is that it tends to be very wealthy and I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy or identify with any of Florio’s stories. I’m very pleased to tell you that I was wrong. I’ve read over 60 books since the last time I’ve cried for a story or a character and Al’s did it for me. I was touched by their relationship and heartbroken by the end of the chapter.

If you’re interested in the history of New York City, or enjoy reading novels about the City in general, I would highly recommend this. I enjoyed the reflective narrative and was more enveloped and invested with each chapter. I hope to see more from Florio in the future, maybe some more tales from her neighbors on Bank Street.

Thank you to New York University Press for the Advanced Readers Copy.

✨Happy Pub Day to Donna Florio and Growing Up Bank Street!✨

I will read anything, watch anything, listen to anything related to New York, so I was really excited to pick up this memoir by Donna Florio, a Bank Street (Greenwich Village) resident since 1956.

I have been listening to stories of Old New York since the womb. My dad grew up in Hell’s Kitchen in the 1950’s, the only Puerto Rican’s on the block, playing stick-ball and kick-the-can with the Italian kids, hearing about the scary Nuns at his Catholic school, his eventual move to the Village (where all the cool 😎 kids hung out) attending NYU, hanging out in Washington Square Park, seeing The Beatles perform for $5, smoking weed in Central Park with the Hippies; he has walked every inch of that island, has loved every inch of that City, and has instilled that love for it in me.

The last time I was in New York visiting, pre-Covid, I remember turning on my phone once we’d landed and a text from my mom came in - “Welcome back to the City that raised you ❤️.” I still get chills and butterflies in my stomach when I’m home. I love you, California, but New York - YOU OWN MY HEART.

Born to Opera performer parents, Florio regales us with these same kinds of stories of being raised by the same City, in the Village, on Bank Street. From the real-life Auntie Mame, to John Lennon, to Sid Vicious (who died in a party across the hall from her), Florio’s memoir is also part History lesson on some of the most eccentric and colorful people that I can’t imagine anywhere else but New York.

This book has reminded me of all of my Pop’s stories and of my own adventures in the City. My City. My New York.

I’m rating this 3.5 stars for the writing style and editing that I think this book could have benefited from - but the stories themselves were fantastic.

Thank you NYU Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

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Growing Up Bank Street - Donna Florio
MARCH 09, 2021 IN BOOK REVIEWS, NONFICTION, MEMOIRS
I have my own personal NYC living stories, over a decade of people, lives, blocks, and streets: my home. NYC is and always will be the one place in the world where I really felt at home and always will. This is why I always jump on other people’s NYC stories and memoirs, because everyone has their own NYC, this city that changes constantly, and houses the most interesting people and lives (as well as the most everyday people and lives and everything in between). Donna Florio grew up on Bank Street through the middle of the 20th century, and has lived there on and off all of her life. Over the years she has collected the stories of many of her neighbors, some of them huge celebrities, others not, and Growing Up Bank Street is a collection of vignettes detailing the lives of these Bank St occupants.

I personally loved the stories of those who were not hugely famous, I often felt like I was coming back home again when I read about people arriving from here and there and making the street into their home, building friendships that would last beyond life itself. I lived on Sixth Ave between Houston and Bleecker for a while, right next door to the Little Red School House, and it was lovely to revisit that area in earlier times, because that corner, that block, has seen so many changes over the years, even between the 10 plus years when I lived there and now. I was less interested in some of the stories, and more interested in others, and I wish that the author had been able to speak more on how AIDS really devastated the community in the 80’s, and also how 9/11 changed so much, but I am also acutely aware of how traumatic both times were for her, and I’m sure not easy to talk about in detail. I also would have loved to see more pictures of the street itself over time.

In any case this is a great read for anyone interested in the West Village, NYC in general, individual NYC stories, and a good dose of old times nostalgia. Thanks to Donna Florio for giving us a peek into what Bank St in New York used to be!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A memoir about Donna's life growing up on Bank Street in Greenwich Village NYC.

If you have ever walked or driven down a street and been curious about the people who live inside the houses and their history, this book is for you! Donna gives amazing detail of her neighbors and friends that lived on Bank Street. Enchanting tales of celebrities and the captivating lives of elderly neighbors, that all resided at some time or another from the 1960's - now, make this memoir unforgettable! She's a great story teller, I could listen to her tell them all day long. Prepare yourself to take a trip down Bank Street as if you lived there your whole life. I hope that she has another book in the making about all her travels.

I will definitely be adding a print copy of this book to my shelves!

This book is about growing up in Greenwich Village. All though I did find parts of this book very interesting, the way the story jumped around was very frustrating and confusing. I am glad that I finished it but is was a struggle. I am giving it 3 stars because of the interesting parts - I just wish I didn’t feel like I was on a rollercoaster while reading the book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not totally sure that memoir is the right category for this book, but I can’t think of a word that would be a better fit. While the author did speak a little about her own experiences it was more the collection of the stories of her friends, neighbors, and chosen family on Bank Street in Greenwich Village. While I enjoyed the vignettes most of them were mere tastes of each person’s life. I liked the glimpses of the lesser known people much better than the more famous vignettes which felt a bit like name dropping as they tended to be less interesting. I also felt like in a few places the author went more biographical than I prefer, but in general this was an enjoyable book. I wavered between 3 and 4 stars and ended up rounding up because the concept was so creative and it was well written. I also really enjoyed the photos in the middle, but it was a little confusing to see pictures of people who had not been introduced yet.

TW/CW: child abuse/sexual assault, loss of a loved one, domestic violence

Growing Up Bank Street is a memoir written by Donna Florio exploring her time and her neighbors on Bank Street, a neighborhood in New York City’s Greenwich Village. She writes about her unique experience as the child of artists and growing in the New York opera scene along with the wacky and equally artistic neighbors of both her apartment building and on Bank Street, in general. I really enjoyed that Florio did deep dives into the stories of her neighbors and provided the reader with extra insight around the lives and unique stories told by these neighbors. This aspect of the book felt voyeuristic in the best way and felt similar to listening to gossip about people you’ve never met before. Along with the stories of these neighbors, Florio talks about different life-altering moments she had with each of her neighbors from discovering that a quiet neighbor isn’t a serial killer, but instead a prolific self-published writer to finding out the old woman down the street who turned her home into a halfway house was the inspiration for Auntie Mame, of literature, Broadway, and movie fame. After the first couple of chapters this book really picks up and Florio finds her stride in how she wanted to tell her story. Florio’s writing style is very descriptive and helps hold interest in her story. You can tell by the way Florio writes that she is a fantastic storyteller and that she holds her history in Bank Street dearly. I recommend this book to people who love to listen to gossip no matter who it is about and those who romanticize New York City, especially the New York of the past. Rating- ⅘

*Note: This book was provided to me as an E-ARC to review from @netgalley and @nyupress.

This is a wonderful story about New York history — specifically, one of my favorite streets in New York City, Bank Street. When I was a young aspiring actress in New York City, taking classes at HB Studio (#120), I would look at the perfect tree-lined block and wonder who lived in the beautiful brownstones in the best part of the West Village. Now, I wonder no more! The author has recounted a beautiful history of the street abd its residents dating back all the way to the 40s and 50s. I never knew, for example, that John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived in a nondescript apartment at #105. And that’s the the beginning. The author tells many wonderful stories about all the neighbors she grew up with on the famous street. Things get really interesting at the height of the Greenwich Village counterculture movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

I loved this book and wish every interesting street in New York had a book like this. Bank Street was the perfect setting for all of these interesting people and their stories. All the romance, intrigue and scandal you imagined about the Village in earlier days can be found here in bright prose with a lot of color.

Many thanks to NYU Press, NetGalley and the author for the ARC of this special book.

Thank you to NetGallery for providing a copy of this book to read.
This book for me was way to many characters to follow in one story. It seemed like as soon as one character was introduced they faded away for someone else to enter.
I get that is what life may be like living in the city of New York. There are many nationalities gathering in the area and many jobs that people can have within a section of the city.
The city is a huge complex of dynamic people working for goals and to establish them selves in the entertainment field for example.
My frustration while it painted a picture of living in a city which is constantly on the move with opportunities and disappointments it doesn’t develop a specific character enough for me.
Therefore I could not recommend this book.

The blurb had really intrigued me on this book as I'm always interested in stories from New York City and the eccentric way of being brought up there so different from my own upbringing. Donna Florio constructed a memoir of her life on Bank Street by telling stories of the motley crew of neighbors that came and went during her life and other interesting folks she met along the way. Woven into her retelling are tidbits of heartbreak from her parents, abounding love from her best friend and her parents, and learned habits and understandings from the community of eclectic people surrounding her. Each chapter is designated to a certain individual she's met or multiple individuals to show us how life was in the 60's and 70's growing up in an artsy, interesting neighborhood such as Greenwich Village. With parents who were both ambitiously centered around the arts and the opera, the way Florio saw and now sees the world gives readers a unique lens into the individuals she tells us about in each chapter. This was an interesting read and Florio's writing was good and kept things moving at a nice pace.