There is something about New York City from the mid-20th century that is always so amazing to me. Even by the 1960s, Metropolis still had a flair, a hive of humanity to so many. Angel Rizzuto was one of those denizens, an angry man (he felt his brothers had betrayed him) who snapped photographs of buildings and their inhabitants every day. He left a trove of snapshots to the Library of Congress, which did jack-squat with them until Michael Lesy came along.

Lesy's intoduction to the photos is quite marvelous, delving into Angel's life and trying to understand why he did what he did. The scenes of city life with the women (all who seem to have believed in heavily made-up eyebrows and faces...rather like today) walking angrily along and children still absorbed in childhood...it all takes us back to the days when social media meant standing on a corner and actually talking with others. Gotham style, of course.

These aren't photographs of a master but of a nameless layman, who left us a view of Manhattan that is now frozen in time. Makes for an excellent coffee-table companion.

Book Season = Autumn (that's NYC's best look) ( )