The Last Book I Read

Back in the early eighties I took a job in downtown Manhattan for a couple of years, in large part because I had a romantic idea of what it would be like to live in New York City from books and movies and wanted to experience it firsthand. I'd actually never been there prior to taking the job, so I had no pre-conceived notions aside from those shaped by my imagination. While I was there, my favorite place to hang out was Greenwich Village-- Washington Square Park, NYU, the pizza place on the corner of Sixth Ave. and 8th St., the branch library in what used to be an old market building, the book and record stores, etc. etc. I didn't go out to the clubs that much, but remember some great shows at the Lone Star in particular. After reading Suze Rotolo's memoir of living there in the sixties though, I kind of feel like I arrived too late to really experience the Village at its peak. I was initially drawn to her story by the Bob Dylan connection (she was his girlfriend, seen on the cover of his second, classic lp The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan). But in fact the real appeal of her book is in the rich picture she paints of life in what might've been the bohemian capital of the world for a few years at the dawn of the sixties. Artists and musicians of every stripe, political activists, and various oddballs and outcasts all gathered in that neighborhood, and it seems that Rotolo encountered most of them. Her own story of passing from adolescence to adulthood in that milieu is interesting in its own right, but its her re-creation of the creative environment where everyone seemed to strive for new ways to express a shared commitment to a better world. In the end, their accomplishments in that regard were modest and not without disappointments, but Rotolo rightly sees value in the effort and that comes across pretty strongly in her story. Dylan's role in all that was considerable, and Rotolo's take adds to versions of his story from other sources (including his autobiography) without lapsing into a celebrity tell-all kind of deal. That too is to her credit. All in all, this book was a very pleasant surprise to me, providing me the opportunity to vicariously experience a time and place that has long intrigued me.