Flying Over 96th Street: Memoir of an East Harlem White Boy

by Thomas L. Webber

Book Overview

Tommy Webber is nine years old when his father, a founding minister of the East Harlem Protestant Parish, moves the family of six from a spacious apartment in an ivy-covered Gothic-style seminary on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416569650
• ISBN13: 9781416569657
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful, touching story

Warm and insightful story of a white boy growing up in a poor black/latino neighborhood in the 60s. Fascinating perspective on the experiences and perspectives of blacks, whites and latinos. Also, a touching story of a boy coming of age, dealing with a best friend who is gay. Open and honest -- addresses issues of drugs, alcohol, gangs, crime, violence and racism but recognizes the good too. He maintains a positive outlook (in the book and in life).

Most Moving Memoir

Flying over 96th Street is the most moving memoir I have ever read. It tells the story of a white young boy growing up in Spanish Harlem durnig the 50s and early 60s and how he and his new black and Puerto Rican friends grow to appreciate, help, teach, and love each other. It is a totally absorbing account of coming of age and should be read by every high school student in america.

Moving, Empathetic Memoir

Webber's portrait of New York in the 1950s and 60s is full of vivid description. He captures the sounds and smells of his neighborhood and, more importantly, draws his characters with an empathetic brush. Yet the book is not just an elegy to a time past. Dr Webber deals deftly and incisevely with class, race and prejudice, while never preaching or teaching. Every page is full of delights. It is a deeply touching book that will rank as one of the great New York City memoirs.

Meaningful lessons on coming of age, race, identity and love

Flying over 96th Street encourages the reader to examine race and relationships. It challenges the reader to look beyond the color of one's skin and examine what happens when you allow yourself to trust and love others who neither look like you or who at first glance seem so different. A must read for those yearning to explore their relationship with others - and a exceptional message for young people - encouraging them to reach beyond their small circle, embrace and take the risk to love others who "appear" so different.

Much to learn from this story

An amazing book about a white boy growing up in East Harlem --with his family the only white family in the projects where they live. Vivid and touching, personal and curiously global, like The Color of Water, you get an insider's view of a biracial community and feel powerfully the great strengths and the huge challenges facing this community and white/black relations. I highly recommend to anyone interested in New York, in race relations and in human relationships.