"A generous, vigorous, and enlightening look at class and space in New York; it ought to be required reading.Gibson has found vibrant humanity in a subject that is, paradoxically, lacking in it. The Edge Becomes the Center  raises critical questions about what we expect from our cities and how groups become communities. Mainly, though, it's a joy to read, its chorus of voices a reminder of oral history's power. Anyone who cares about the shape and gestalt of life in New York--and anyone who believes in cities as centers of culture--will come away moved." -- The Paris Review "Impressive and multifaceted oral history.Central to this work are the distinctive voices of the New Yorkers Gibson interviews, the niches they carve out for themselves, and the myriad ways they are molding, and being molded, by their neighborhoods. Gibson manages to capture a global city in flux, in grave danger of losing its diversity--and hence all that makes it special--with its focus on capital investment over the needs of its people.

" -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "Throughout, the wise women and the cool guys with significant street cred are verbose, articulate, and self-confident. They are, after all, New Yorkers. Gibson, their interlocutor, is unquestionably passionate.sociology about current urban life, with the edgy, pungent flavor of the Big Apple." -- Kirkus "Whatever I thought of New York gentrification before reading THE EDGE BECOMES THE CENTER, it's all up in the air now, dispersed into the dazzling, extremely intelligent, funny, expert multifarious speech of the people DW Gibson interviewed for this amazing book.  Reading it has transformed my understanding of the urban experience generally, humanizing and explaining, brilliantly, what before had seemed intimidating, abstract, even monstrous. A piece of masterful human scale architecture in itself,  THE EDGE BECOMES THE CENTER f eels like 'a new part of New York,' a vital new center of the city's perpetual conversation with itself and the world." -- Francisco Goldman, author of  The Interior Circuit:  A Mexico City Chronicle "This might be the most important city book of the year, essential reading for anyone who cares about New York, or life in the metropolis anywhere.

Gibson has managed to get a diverse group of New Yorkers to open up their hearts and minds about gentrification, the defining civic issue of our time. I raced through the book, traveling with Gibson as he surfs from story to story in the great, imperiled city. A riveting, timely portrait of the greatest, richest, unfairest city in the world."  --Suketu Mehta, author of  Maximum City    "As, building by building, the 'undiscovered' neighborhoods of New York City are assimilated into the portfolios of hedge funds and the beneficiaries of inequality, DW Gibson captures precarious voices that might otherwise go unheard forever.  This is an indispensable, enthralling work of social history." --Joseph O'Neill, author of  The Dog  and  Netherland   "21st century New York, which Bill de Blasio decried as  A Tale of Two Cities,  has yet to reveal its Dickens. But with  THE EDGE BECOMES THE CENTER,  DW Gibson makes a strong claim to being its Studs Terkel. A riveting exploration of gentrification and its discontents, as told by a refreshingly panoramic chorus of voices.

" --Mark Binelli, author of  Detroit City Is the Place to Be  .