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In the neighborhood : the search for community on an American street, one sleepover at a time

by Lovenheim, Peter.

Format: Print Book 2010
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 1 copy

Available (1)
Location Collection Call #
Scott Township Library Nonfiction 307.3 LOVE
Location  Scott Township Library
 
Collection  Nonfiction
 
Call Number  307.3 LOVE
 
 

Summary
Read Peter Lovenheim's posts on the Penguin Blog.

Based on a popular New York Times Op-Ed piece, this is the quirky, heartfelt account of one man's quest to meet his neighbors-and find a sense of community.

Journalist and author Peter Lovenheim has lived on the same street in suburban Rochester, NY, most of his life. But it was only after a brutal murder-suicide rocked the community that he was struck by a fact of modern life in this comfortable enclave: no one knew anyone else.

Thus begins Peter's search to meet and get to know his neighbors. An inquisitive person, he does more than just introduce himself. He asks, ever so politely, if he can sleep over.

In this smart, engaging, and deeply felt book, Lovenheim takes readers inside the homes, minds, and hearts of his neighbors and asks a thought-provoking question: do neighborhoods matter-and is something lost when we live among strangers?
Contents
Waking at Lou's
A considerable trauma
Footprints
The top of their games
No bed, no breakfast
The woman in the castle
Motion sickness
A father ten feet tall
Misdirected mail
Connections.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "After a tragic murder-suicide in his neighborhood, Lovenheim feels compelled to learn if closer relationships among neighbors might have saved a woman from death. The cultural study that follows is as much about sociology as it is about simple friendship as Lovenheim wonders why people can live side-by-side and know literally nothing about each other. He engages in long conversations both with those he has known (at least casually) for years and others he has never met. A retired doctor, harried real-estate agent, workaholic consultant, pathologist, radiologist fighting cancer, dog walkers, and others allow him into their homes and, at least a little bit, their hearts. He meets families and pets and witnesses daily routines, asking repeatedly just what it is that makes a place a home and a street more than merely an address. He reaches out and finds others also searching for connection and longing for what used to be. Lovenheim advances ideas about isolation in the modern world, and why a welcoming front porch is needed now more than ever.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2010 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Social history reporting can get dull in the abstract; happily, journalist and family man Lovenheim (Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf) makes a personal project of his investigation into the disappearance of community in suburban American, learning about the residents of his suburban Rochester, N.Y. street by sleeping over at their houses (his impetus was a murder-suicide on the street that helped reveal the extent to which his neighbors remained strangers). Throughout, Lovenheim's writing is genteel and elegantly detailed, revealing much about his subjects-issues of class, relationships, likes and gripes, obsessions and everyday struggles-that would be easy to miss in broad cultural assessments. His project also exposes the surprising variety of people in a neighborhood that seems, at first glance, a homogenous group of upper-middle-class professionals. Using the sleepover as an innovative sociological lens, Lovenheim provides a smart, from-the-front-lines update on Robert Putnam's suburban-alienation expose Bowling Alone, taking a personal look at what Americans tend to lose by "[going] about their lives largely detached from those living around them." (Apr.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information."

Additional Information
Subjects Communities -- United States.
Neighborliness -- United States.
Neighborhoods -- United States.
Social networks -- United States.
Publisher New York :Perigee,2010
Edition 1st ed.
Language English
Description xviii, 238 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography Notes Includes bibliographical references (pages [237]-238).
ISBN 9780399535710
0399535713
Other Classic View