★2015年布魯克林老鷹文學獎最佳非小說（2015 Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize）得主
★美國筆會/福克納小說獎得主Joseph O’Neill（《Netherland》、《The Dog》）、普立茲獎報導文學入圍作家Suketu Mehta（《Maximum City》）盛情推薦

《從邊緣到中心》（The Edge Becomes the Center）是一本講述紐約人如何參與並受城市縉紳化（gentrification）影響與衝擊的開創性口述歷史。

美國的城市人口仍在逐年上升，如果住在城市裡，肯定會親眼目睹縉紳化對周遭環境的改變。它改變城市的外貌、感覺、生活成本甚至氣味，程度之劇烈，令人難以想像曾是別的樣貌。

過去幾年，記者、政策制定者、評論家、歷史學家都試圖解釋，當新資金與新居民流入舊社區時引發的縉紳化現象究竟是什麼，然而卻很少能觸其中的人性面向。《從邊緣到中心》的口述歷史捕捉了紐約各行各業人士的故事——仲介、買家、賣家、房客、房東、藝術家、承建商、政客以及其中涉及的每一個人——他們同時塑造了新紐約，也被新紐約所改變。

在這部非凡的口述史中，吉布森讓縉紳化的討論脫離社論專欄或教科書的語彙，因人的故事、城市居民的聲音富有生命力，說明了城市變遷真實的感受與樣貌，是關於當代生活方式不可缺少的重要描繪。

 

DW•吉布森（DW Gibson）著有《Not Working: People Talk About Losing a Job and Finding Their Way in Today’s Changing Economy》。文章撰述散見《紐約時報》、《紐約觀察家》、《每日野獸》、BOMB、《The Caravan》等。任紐約Writers Omi at Ledig House駐村計畫總監，隸屬於Omi國際藝術中心。現居紐約市。

 

“A noisy, tender tour of New York much in the mode of Studs Terkel...Mr. Gibson is a skilled and sensitive interlocutor with an eye for the revealing gesture...Mr. Gibson lets the city speak for itself, and it speaks with charm, swagger and heartening resilience.”——《紐約時報》

“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.”——《巴黎評論》 (The Paris Review)

“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 feels like ‘a new part of New York,’ a vital new center of the city’s perpetual conversation with itself and the world.” ——Francisco Goldman，獲獎小說家、記者，著有《衛報》2014年10本最佳城市書之一《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，著有普立茲獎報導文學入圍作《孟買眾生錄》（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，著有美國筆會/福克納小說獎得主《Netherland》、《The Dog》