Book Review: The Archaeology of Home

I have just finished reading The Archaeology of Home: An Epic Set on a Thousand Square Feet of the Lower East Side (2011) by Katharine Greider.  The story opens in 2002, with Greider receiving a late Friday evening phone call from the architect heading up a team charged with assessing her home, No. 239 E. 7th Street, for proposed repairs.  An inspection by the team's engineer reveals a deteriorated foundation in a "failed condition": No. 239 is in imminent danger of complete structural failure and collapse. The architect will report the building's condition to the City first thing Monday morning.  No. 239's occupants, including Greider's family, need to vacate over the weekend.

In an effort to answer the reverberating question How did this happen?, Greider scours the archives of City Hall, searching for the documents that will illuminate some disastrous remodel or faulty decision making of the past.  In the process, she also traces the lives of the people who owned the land and/or lived in/around the building which eventually become her home.  This copiously researched account takes the reader back to the days when what would someday be known as the Lower East Side was yet a salt marsh, the seasonal domain of the Lenape tribe.  Drawing on a vast array of source documents, Greider "excavates" each subsequent strata of the East River neighborhood, revealing a succession of socio-cultural changes that reflect the history not only of New York City but also the United States.

Though the transitions between personal narrative and local history are occasionally awkward, overall Greider's portrait of No. 239 and its environs is captivating and well-written.  The reference list alone is a treasure trove - a rich source of material about NYC's history and immigrant population, especially in the heyday of the tenements.  Greider's reflections on the affect of space and place on the building's/neighborhood's inhabitants are also noteworthy and fully referenced.

I read The Archaeology of Home on a NookColor from Barnes & Noble.  While I appreciate many aspects of the e-book, I wish I'd purchased a paper copy for my library.  The combination of tactile/visual memory and a rainbow of PostIt flags would make it much easier for me to reference specific items of interest in the future.  The virtual bookmark provided by Nook doesn't have the same mental stickiness for me.  Still, whatever the format, The Archaeology of Home is definitely recommended to anyone interested in the life-shaping place we call home.