TWELVE CITIES

by John Gunther ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 26, 1969

With a visa extended by the Digest and Harper's, this was originally intended as part of the Inside series however much the presumption of that preposition may be questioned. Still as easily readable as ever, these summary cityscapes confirm what Gunther's audience may have seen or is most likely to see. Where possible there are the overall judgments: Paris--""balance, lucidity, precision""; London--""grace, durability, style""; while Rome provides ""no easy answers."" Although the emphasis varies from city to city, there are general perspectives of politics, quartiers, foods and nightclubs (the only aspects of Hamburg and Vienna considered), services, social strata, sites and sights, arts and letters. The latter often very sketchily--in Paris, with its degringolade into ""apathy and sterility,"" Mr. Gunther relies chiefly on Mr. Malraux's dismissive corroboration thereof in cultural affairs. In fact Mr. Gunther appropriates from, while accrediting to, others throughout. Usually they are name names. Brussels retains its burgher phlegmaticism, Tokyo its ""pig and porcelain"" contrasts; Warsaw, the phoenix city (80% of its industry destroyed along with 450,000 Jews) is still harshly anti-Semitic; Moscow, more mobile than he observed earlier, is a class-conscious closed society; Jerusalem's ""a state of mind"" and there is much of its historical past along with its political present and great leaders (Dayan, Ben Gurion, etc.); finally there's Hussein's ""gemutlich"" Amman along with shy, conservative, agreeable Hussein himself, and Beirut with its sectarianism evidenced in its 57 daily newspapers, 80 banks. . . . Then of course there are the well-heeled marginalia: ""no shoe has ever been shined until it has been shined at Claridge's,"" where some of these readers certainly will have stayed.

Pub Date: March 26, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION