Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier

Oceane Mercadal

Book Review

The sidewalk by Mitchell Duneir was not my first choice of book to read for a book the book review. My first choice was The Hidden Dimension by Edward T. Hall, the title just attracted me but the book was not available at my bookstore any more. I was scared at first when I realized how thick the book was but soon found out that it was an easy and fast read. The book is more like a documentary than a novel. Mitchell describes the life of book street vendors and what happens on the sidewalks.

The author makes assumptions right at the beginning of the book, which he soon realizes where wrong. When he walks by Hakim’s book table he feels that it is not a place for him to hang around because the majority of people around them is black. Most of the street book vendors specialize in one or more areas such as “expansive art and photography books; dictionaries; New York Times beset-sellers; “black books”; new quality mass-market…” (p.19). Mitchell thought that the so-called “black books” that where on sail, defined the boundary of an exclusively black area were African Americans were allowed and whites where banned. The author goes through out the book making assumptions of this sort and is then to realize that they are wrong because once he approaches Hakim’s table he is welcomed like any other individual, yet he is uncomfortable for an unknown reason. The only reason why Mitchall thought that the ‘black books’ where reserved to an African American public was because the ones talking about them were black and they seemed to define themselves as the people. He was soon to realize that whites were also taking part of the conversations. Through out this documentary the author studies the lives of African Americans and two of them in particular, being Hakim the street book vendor and Jerome the young man that works at the Vitamin Shop by the corner of Hakim’s table.

The author observes what happens of the sidewalks of different streets and examines people’s actions and behaviors. He interacts with, as many people as he ca in order to better understand their living situation and life. Mitchell meets a lot of new people but always seems to be mainly fascinated by the African American population. When he describes the ‘new uses of the sidewalks’ you realize that every one is equal once you’re on the streets. Every one occupies the sidewalks according to Mitchall Duneier: “ But at all times the neighborhood lends itself to the affluent and to the unhoused, to the ph.D and to the unschooled, on the same sidewalk at the same time.” (p.119) Everyone uses the sidewalks for their own reasons. Some find a shelter in them while others use it as a path to another destination.

This book reminds me of Jane Jacobs one The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Both authors describe the various uses of the sidewalks. Everyone interacts with each other on the sidewalks whether it is the help the old lady with her grocery bags or the mother with the baby stroller. At the beginning of Mitchell’s book he describes how the delivery boy leaves a package to Hackim for the store next to him because Hakim is seen every day on the same spot so he is therefore trusted and aware of everything going on, on this street. In Jacobs book she describes a little girl being bothered by a man and soon the entire soon street was surrounding this man in order to protect the girl even though they did not know who she was. According to these two books the sidewalks may be the safest area to be in considering people will always intervene if need be to protect the tranquility of their street.