Having worked in and around Greenwich Village in my twenties, I was quite interested in reading Growing Up Bank Street, a memoir by Donna Florio. The author grew up in the neighborhood and I was sure she could give me insight into the area, both past and present. I have an insatiable interest when it comes to the histories of the neighborhoods I grew up and/or worked in, so I figured Growing Up Bank Street was the book for me.
We are briefly introduced to Donna Florio herself, but mostly the information we receive about the author comes through her tales about the various denizens of the Village. Not that I minded. No offense to the author, but I really wanted to know what the Village was like while she was growing up and what it eventually turned into when I stopped visiting the area. Seeing it through her eyes and the eyes of the various people she encountered there was just fine with me.
And so we meet various artists, eccentric individuals, politicians, musicians, writers and the like. Having performer parents meant that Donna met many actors both on and off the stage, but I most enjoyed the stories she told about her neighbors – the Italian artist who eventually lost her mind and became a hoarder, former Sex Pistols star Sid Vicious who actually overdosed on heroine and died in the apartment next door, the woman Auntie Mame was based upon who lived down the street, the former sailor turned Broadway dancer who became an advocate and caregiver to fellow Bank Street members stricken by AIDS.
There were tales of how Donna’s mother was rescued by Charles Kerault (host of the television series On the Road) when her heel got stuck in the melting tar in the middle of Bank Street, the time she met John Lennon…by accidentally dumping water on his head as he walked by, the eccentric man who roamed the streets during the day in suits but wore a jester’s costume by night and so many more. As Donna grows from precocious child into adult, we see how the Village was just like my neighborhood of old – everyone looked out for everyone else. If one child was in trouble, all the mothers would band together to help. If a neighbor fell on hard times, everyone helped, from cooking meals to cleaning the house to mending clothes and more.
Most important to me was to see how the Village changed throughout Donna’s years living in the area. How tenement apartment denizens rejoiced at having their own bathrooms installed after having to share a public bathroom for years. How certain businesses closed and others opened. How various warehouses and factories became apartment buildings and more. It was interesting to read about how the Depression, World War II, the AIDS epidemic and 9/11 affected the people living on Bank Street as well as the growth of the neighborhood.
Anyone who has ever enjoyed what Greenwich Village has to author or has lived in or worked around the area and loves history will enjoy Growing Up Bank Street. Once you start reading, you can’t get enough. Definitely a must read for anyone from New York City.

I was born five years later and grew up 35 miles away, but it might as well have been on another planet. Donna Florio's childhood was the childhood that my parents were afraid that I would have. She was mugged several times. Crazy people on the street shouted obscenities at her. People of non-mainstream political and sexual proclivities were her neighbors.

It's easy to second-guess my poor departed parents now, but it seems like Donna Florio had a lot more fun than I had, repeated muggings notwithstanding. She certainly has better stories, which form this book and make for excellent story-telling. She knew Sid Vicious, Frank McCourt, Bella Abzug, Alan Arkin, Theodore Bikel, Charles Kuralt, Jane Jacobs, and a whole load of people who were less famous but often more interesting.

She sang in the children's chorus of the Metropolitan Opera.

She accidentally dumped some water on John Lennon's head. He was surprisingly gracious about it.

In addition to her personal recollections, Florio also did a lot of research on about residents of Bank Street before her own appearance on the scene. The book slides back and forth between history and memoir, often within the space of a single chapter. This was acceptable to me, but it may bother the sort of person who doesn't like their peas to touch their carrots.

Reading non-fiction often sends me down informational rabbit holes. Here's one this book caused me to explore:

Madeline Lee Gilford was an actress, producer, author, and neighbor of Donna Florio on Bank Street. After World War II, she was compelled to testify before the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee about alleged Communist activity in the entertainment industry. At Kindle location 1879, the book says:

"When the committee members interviewed Madeline, a petite blond beauty, she demurely misheard and stonewalled every question …. She offered respectful but utterly oblique answers to members of the increasingly baffled committee members, staying sweetly but firmly in ditzy, wide-eyed character until her interrogators threw up their hands in despair."

Elsewhere, Florio says that a re-enactment of this scene (at Gifford's 2008 funeral) left people in stitches. I'm always in the market for a good laugh, so I searched for this historical moment and found Gilford's daughter and others re-enacting it on the cable news channel C-SPAN . The exchange did not seem to me as hilarious as Florio claims, but it was an undeniably courageous moment for Gilford to face down a bunch of fat sweaty hypocrites in the manner that she did. Watch it for yourself at this URL:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4695455/user-clip-lisa-gilford-reading-madeline-gilfords-huac-testimony

When older, I got to spend a few happy months in residence near Bank Street and enjoyed myself mightily, so I did not totally miss out on the fun myself. However, this neighborhood is now completely out of my tax bracket, just as it would be for most of the eccentrics, radicals, and artists who gave the neighborhood its original character and reputation. It's a shame, but at least this book captures a part of Manhattan which is gone forever.

In the end, I think Florio would agree with my Long-Suffering Wife, who once bought (ironically, at an upscale boutique near Bank Street) a Kindle-sized cloth carrier bag which bore the following message: “I liked New York better before everyone had so much money.”

I received a free advance review copy of this book from NYU Press via Netgalley, who enticed me, damn them, to forsake the pile of other books I have by featuring this book in a mass email about new memoirs.

I have read many historical books of various building, but I must say this book was over the top. Donna Florio writes a books of heartache, love, family and change. She tells a story of the famous people who buy various apartments on Bank Street. Growing up in a family that breaths opera twenty-four seven. She then tells us of the hippies, musicians, actors, Broadway performers that had crossed Donna's path as she grew up. She wrote how nice John Lennon was when he spoke to her. She then said how can he be with someone like Yoko. Sid Vicious living next door, how nice he was to her dad but then died of an overdose which changed the feeling on Bank Street. She wrote of the real Auntie Mame who told her never to give up on her dreams, The Broadway dancer she helped during the AIDS crisis as his many friends died.. She wrote of the horrors of 9-11 and how her life went out of sync because of it. Yet these different people helped her through these terrible times. Even when she divorced and moved away, she always found her way back to Bank Street.. Donna took us through the many decades of change and yet Bank Street is still there. I loved reading this book because the author lived it. Lived on this street, call these people family and showed us over time things change but they also survive. Thank you Donna Florio for writing a book of love, family heart ache and survival. Thank you NYU Press for approving me for this wonderful book.

It was fun to read about the diverse group of people living in the Greenwich Village on Bank Street. To read about the lives of different creative artists right from actors, rockstars, drag queens to the neglected the forgotten

It was refreshing to see that the author didn't hold back on describing the not so fun parts of living in that street.

I would recommend this book to whoever is interested in the history of new york and all it had and continues to offer

What a delightful read! Following Donna through her life on Bank Street was fascinating. A mini history of a part of New York City of which I was unaware, even though major players in the theater world were involved. I loved reading this book. Well written and easy to read.

I love books set in NYC. The author does a good job of introducing many interesting characters but the in the weeds details and the skipping around plot line kept this one from really getting off the ground for me.

Donna Florio has written a love song to New York& particularly Bank Street where she has lived her life.As a former New Yorker I had heard of Bank Street her neighborhood it was a well known Cole toon of buildings with a cast of characters all drawn to the block.From Charles Karult living a double life to other actors a cast of characters that formed the neighborhood.I enjoyed reading the intimate details of this community the author did ad great job bringing it and the occupants to life.Well written and researched,#netgalley#nyupress

Donna Florio grew up in a make-believe world in Greenwich Village in in the 1950s and 60s. Her memoir of life on Bank Street almost sounds like it can’t be real. But it has to be. No one could make up these people.

The book starts rather slowly, but it picks up. Bank Street apparently was a short street with elegant brownstones morphing to tenements the closer you got to the Hudson River. She starts by giving a quick overview. That sort of bogs down. But it picks up when she gets into details of her own life. We are contemporaries, but I don’t think I would have enjoyed the life she lived. She spends the latter half of the book profiling a number of the more interesting residents of Bank Street.

Overall, persevering through the slow start was worth the effort. I enjoyed what was obviously a labor of love for her.

Where we grew up plays an integral role in our lives, no matter how far we may roam from our roots. Florio roamed the world, but always found her way home on 63 Bank Street in Greenwich Village. Her book is a study of a close community with a cascade of colorful people. I enjoyed reading her neighbors stories. She name dropped many famous people she rubbed elbows with as a resident, many names I recognized. One of the most interesting tidbits was Charles Kuralts dual,life, something I was oblivious about so I had to look it up. It's a charming read of a microcosm amidst a city of millions. Florio gives a wonderful tribute to the Bank Street inhabitants.

A heartfelt biography of Bank Street, but also 63 Bank, the building the author has called home for her entire life. While she knows a number of famous residents, including Bella Abzug and Sid Vicious, this isn't the story of the names we know but rather the collective story of those who called Bank Street home in the second half of the twentieth century. My favorite was probably her neighbors Al and Lena for two very different reasons.

In parallel, this is the story of the Village and NYC during those years. The extension of Stonewall to the piers, the drag community, the AIDS crisis. And in later years, the closure of Amato Opera.

A really good read. My only quibble is that there are a lot of people and it's sometimes hard to keep track of all the names. A glossary of sorts would have been helpful.

This was a no-brainer for me when I spied it on NetGalley not too long ago. Even though I have never been to New York City, I feel like it is my home. I devour books about the city, its individual boroughs, the whole history from New Amsterdam to now, because I want to know every last detail and try to imagine what life would be like to be a child of NYC. Now, don't get me wrong, I had an amazing childhood and am incredibly lucky and blessed and loved. But if that amazing childhood could have been transplanted to the Village, that would have been most excellent.

The author delves into the history of the street, one street - maybe one of the most famous streets in the entire country, in easily the most famous neighborhood in the country. She weaves together the stories of her life and the lives of those around her with such clarity, and they all flow together well as we see the street change and grow, as the author does along with it.

Florio leaves no stone unturned as she described her unconventional upbringing. Raised on opera and theatre life by her patents, she spent her days and nights among an eclectic and eccentric mix of people who would each leave their definitive mark on her, shaping Florio into the adult she would become.

The author lovingly recounts all the good and bad related to roaming the Village as a child, youth, and adult. We see firsthand the neighbors who came and went, the cast of characters who simply could not be made up - this is the Village. I found her story about accidentally dumping water on John Lennon's head quite amusing, which apparently he did too. Yoko, on the other hand, did not seem as pleased. Reading her account of the brief time in which Sid Vicious was her next-door neighbor was especially touching.

There were also plenty of encounters with regular every-day people as well and Florio specifically recounts the AIDS crisis hitting the Village hard. To read of her pain and fear in the wake of the attacks on September 11th was especially powerful - this place she loved so much, this place that had seeped into her bones and became part of her, was suddenly unrecognizable. Still, she slowly but surely found her way back from those awful days, weeks, months.

Greenwich Village and Bank Street in particular owe a huge debt of gratitude to Florio. She so beautifully captured the beating heart of the neighborhood, describing with such perfection the changing village over the passing decades. The Village of her youth is long gone, and typing those words truly brings more than a touch of sadness; never again will such a mix of colorful characters exist in this way together. The culture that thrived despite the truly glaring differences of those who inhabited the buildings along Bank Street can never be recaptured in reality, so I am thankful that Florio has done that so splendidly here.

This is a must-read for anyone with a love for all things NYC. Highly highly recommended.

Donna Florio pens a tender love letter to her forever-home, Bank Street, in this rose-tinted memoir.

Memoirs aren't typically my cup of tea, but the synopsis of this one intrigued me! As someone who grew up in the rural American south, and had only ever seen New York City once (two years ago), I really wanted to dive deeper into this particular perspective of NYC. Donna takes a rather common storyteller's approach in this one. It's actually not hard to imagine sitting down with her like you might with an older relative - the beverage of choice in your hands - as they prattle on about days that now exist only in their memories.

Donna doesn't pretend to be some gilded authoress. She tells it like it is. Overall, this was an enjoyable look into the history of Bank Street and the culture of New York.

Big thank you to NYU Press + Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book!

The book seemed too dry for my taste I just couldn't get into it. Read a few chapters and then put it down.. I'm sure others will enjoy it.

The warmth and eccentricities of Greenwich Village leap off the page in Donna Florio’s inviting read. Having walked the streets of the Village, visiting the shops, photographing John and Yoko’s 105 Bank Street entryway and enjoying the ambiance of this unique neighborhood, Florio paints a portrait that made me feel as if I was there. Growing up as the child of opera performing parents, she lived among a vast cultural audience of artists, blue collars, actors, musicians and visionaries. The sparkle and flair mingled with the downtrodden peppered her life. This was her neighborhood, the dangerous and the safe, the struggling and the affluent, the dreams and disappointments. We travel through the early days of the AIDS epidemic and the personal and devastating effects of 9/11. This is a coming of age story, a journey of self discovery, of shadows and light and a historic neighborhood that has a colorful and vibrant soul.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley, New York University Press and especially Donna Florio for this most enjoyable ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Donna Florio has lived in various apartments in 63 Bank Street, Greenwich Village, since her birth in 1955. This book is a labor of love and the result of many years of work. Her goal appears to have been giving readers a true feeling for what her neighborhood has been like since the late 1800's and the changes it has gone through. She has a love for the architecture and the bohemians who have come and gone and made their homes on Bank Street and its environs for over a century. In addition to people Florio knew of or knew personally, she has collected anecdotes and life stories of the more interesting people who have lived within the six blocks of Bank Street (and Bleeker Street). Among them are the original Auntie Name, Rex Harrison, Jack Gilford and his wife, Charles Kuralt, Bella Abzug, and many others. The stories can be a little chopped-up in places, introducing certain people in one place in the book and then going back to their stories later. For example, Frank McCourt was Florio's English and writing teach but is mentioned briefly in two different places. I wanted to know much, much more about someone she knew throughout high school who is one of my all-time favorite writers. I found myself wishing that each person had a section to him/herself. But then, sometimes the author organizes her narrative by addresses. For some people, this form of organization (or disorganization) may interfere with their enjoyment of the book, but I just read it as written...full of interesting people and times. If you don't mind vignettes, you should like this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Growing Up Bank Street.

This was a fascinating, lively portrait of a woman who grew up in the heyday of the Village; when artists and rock stars hung out, where you mingled with actors and drag queens, the educated, the artsy, the downtrodden, the mentally ill.

Ms. Florio describes an unconventional upbringing with actor parents who never fulfilled their creative and artistic potential (and sadly blamed Ms. Florio for her arrival and thwarting their big Broadway dreams), her neighbors, some damaged, some harboring deep secrets, but all she learned from and grew up with.

Ms. Florio honed useful and necessary street smarts as she navigated both safe and dangerous blocks in her neighborhood; she doesn't mince words. She may have grown up in a different time, but it didn't mean it was safe.

The author paints a neighborhood and backdrop long gone; a Village that was a true reflection of New York City, filled with artists and vagrants, the elite and ill repute mingling together, the rough and tumble with the educated and downtrodden.

I spent my angst filled teen years in the Village in the 90s, when it was still cool to hang out, before it became gentrified and Starbucks and trendy boutiques moved in.

I remember my BFF at the time and I would watch hustlers con victims out of their hard earned cash at three-card monte, vendors hawking their wares, and once I saw a man walk down the street in nothing but chaps and cowboy boots. Only in the Village, I thought.

Those days are long gone.

Ms. Florio's memoir captures a past that has moved on, her stories of her eccentric and no less fascinating neighbors captivated me just as much as her run-ins with celebs like Sid Vicious and John Lennon. I can't imagine her childhood; heartbreaking and heartwarming, shocking and endearing, sad but hopeful.

The author paints a time we may never have been a part of or is long gone; a neighborhood where the tenants and neighbors watched out for each other; knew your name and waved from across the street, reminding us that location is not just about prime real estate, its where you grew up, and how it shapes you into the person you will later become.

I highly recommend this to anyone interested in reading about New York City and its artsy, bygone past.

This is a history of old New York City, especially Greenwich Village, told from a lifelong resident of Bank Street. Bank Street is a 6 block section of the far West Village and is community unto itself. Many celebrities of stage, screen, music, and the literary worlds lived, worked, and entertained in their Bank Street residences. The author tells intimate stories of many, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Sid Vicious, the REAL Auntie Mame, Charles Kuralt, Alan and Adam Arkin and many others.

She researched the history of her neighborhood and spent years interviewing residents past and present, including their family members. For those interested in NYC history, this is an informative and entertaining read.