Overview
The ad hoc community of Kochville springs up overnight when the participants in an all-night vigil protesting homelessness become semipermanent residents of City Hall Park. In the shadow of City Hall, but with no one to guide them, the "residents" of Kochville must decide how to govern themselves. The rich and vivid cast of characters includes Duke York, the former jazz musician haunted by the separation from his wife and daughters; Marc Greenberg, the well-intentioned but naive organizer; Ellen McCarthy, who finds herself coming alive after an unhappy marriage by working with the homeless; Larry Locke, the Vietnam vet who becomes the toast of New York City at Kochville's height; and Mayor Koch himself, a politician's politician, facing his waterloo.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Jiler (Dark Wind) provides an excellent example here of the trend in journalism toward human-interest storytelling by documenting "Kochville"the ad hoc homeless/activist community that sprang up alongside New York's City Hall during the 1988 budget meetings. Rather than just explore the lives and motivations of the core group, who camped out from June to December, he also takes on the challenge of objectivity, presenting opposing views, such as Mayor Ed Koch's, and the perspectives of advocates, such as City Council member Ruth Messinger. The result is closer to fiction than journalism, because Jiler relies heavily on an omniscient narrator. Generally, the technique works seamlessly, infusing the reader with empathy for all concerned and highlighting the individuals behind such complicated issues as race relations, class divisions and power politics. Jiler stumbles only when he decides to describe the history of a particular building in the Bronx, beginning in 1875 with the personal troubles of its builder. Yet even this minor transgression benefits from the author's clean, tight prose and sensitivity to his characterselements that ultimately make this book successful in its exploration of the attitudes surrounding homelessness. As Jiler tells us, his book is not about romanticizing homelessness but "about the strength of dreams." (Sept.)Library Journal
New York City, summer 1988: a small group protesting homelessness holds an all-night vigil in City Hall Park across from the offices of then-mayor Ed Koch. From this one-night protest Kochville rises, becoming a fixture in the park until winter. An author (Dark Wind: A True Account of Hurricane Gloria's Assault on Fire Island, LJ 6/15/93), journalist, and playwright, Jiler recounts the daily life and struggles of the homeless citizens of Kochville during that period, set against a backdrop of city budget debates and Koch's reelection battle with David Dinkins. For a true story, the book reads too much like a novel. Apart from mentioning it in the preface, one can't tell that Jiler actually lived with the Kochvillians during this time or determine whether attributed thoughts and feelings are as reported or simply surmised. Thus, while the book makes interesting reading, it ultimately disappoints as a factual account.Kate Kelly, Treadwell Lib., Massachusetts General Hosp., BostonA drama in three parts, focusing on the conflict between New York's mayor Ed Koch and the homeless in the late 1980s.
In June 1988, 30 homeless men and women decided to stay in City Hall Park after the organizers of an all-night vigil on their behalf had gone back to their homes and offices. Initially, they stayed because the weather was good and they had no place else to go. But over time, they got organized. By fall, the residents of "Kochville" had become a political force, a darling of the media, and a major irritant to irascible Mayor Koch. Jiler (Dark Wind, 1993) wrote about Kochville for the Village Voice, eventually becoming so engrossed in his story that, like an anthropologist, he moved in with the homeless in the park. This time around, Jiler puts Kochville into context, describing its rise and fall alongside that of Mayor Koch and of 850 Longwood Avenue, a Bronx apartment building symbolic of disastrous, heartless housing policies and trends that made homelessness nearly epidemic in New York City in the 1980s. Koch was the villain of the story in 1988, but Jiler now shows him as a complex man of both great strengths and self-destructive flaws, much like Kochville's home-grown leaders, Duke York and Larry Locke. An anthropologist would have told us how his own presence in the camp affected events and how he became privy to the private conversations and inner wrestlings that fill much of this book. But Jiler is a journalist and playwright, and his apparent intent is not just to chronicle a specific event but to construct a drama with universal lessons about characters who must war against both social forces and inner demons.
A long-shot, winning trifecta for Jiler, who makes the reader care about each of his three protagonists: Ed Koch, the homeless, and 850 Longwood Avenue.