Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas

New York City’s vitality and diversity are done justice in this third in a series of city atlases, following Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas and Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas. As editor Solnit states in her introduction to the present volume, her trilogy explores “what maps can do to describe the ingredients and systems that make up a city and what stories remain to be told after we think we know where we are.” The book includes 26 wonderfully inventive maps, presented in color on full pages and accompanied by essays by a variety of contributors, including historians, ethnographers, journalists, and novelists. The maps are often playful and idiosyncratic. Highlights include “Harper’s and Harpooners: Whaling and Publishing in Melville’s Manhattan,” “Mysterious Land of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Clan’s Staten Island,” and a map entitled “City of Women,” which superimposes the names of women over stations on a subway map. Even lifelong New Yorkers fluent in their city’s history will find this work thought-provoking. Color illus. (Oct.)