a city reader

Jersey Boys

The pols and the public schools 

of Newark compose a sad song

I’m halfway through this book. I’m not sure I’ll finish it. I liked the beginning, all about the city of Newark’s dynamic  history, and now its decline. Schools along with it. There’s a gritty stimulation in reading about cities like Newark, their streets of striving immigrants.

But the book, like life, loses its appeal when the politicians and the consultants show up. They think a lot of themselves. They think they’re all about the people. They convince people of it. They convinced well-meaning Mark Zuckerberg to give them $100 million dollars for their plan for the Newark schools. That’s what the book’s about. Of course it doesn’t work out. Of course it doesn’t.