A Walk Up Fifth Avenue By Bernard Levin
November 13th, 2009 | 
Author: A Walk Up Fifth Avenue By Bernard Levin
Bernard Levin begins A Walk Up Fifth Avenue with three quotations from descriptions of New York City. These date from 1916 1929 and 1949 and were written by Jane Kilmer Theodore Dreiser and E. B. White respectively. Bernard Levin uses these vignettes to establish the reality or perhaps unreality of a changing city a superficially permanent edifice which really is in constant flux and is never more than a transient manifestation made concrete of the people interests and activities it houses. Bernard Levins 1989 book now becomes itself another such historical exhibit since the twenty years that have elapsed since the publication of A Walk Up Fifth Avenue has seen major changes to New Yorks skyline economy and population. In 1989 Bernard Levin made scant reference to Arabs or Afghans and hardly mentions Islam when referring to the citys religious identity. In 1989 Russians generally were still in Russia not the United States. The twin towers of the World Trade Centre appear in three of the books colour plates without remark and nowhere in the books three hundred pages it took to walk the length of Fifth Avenue is there a single mention of the word terrorism.
For the targeted British audience of this book the author perhaps symbolised something quintessentially English. An established columnist on The Times wellknown television commentator and latterly presenter of offbeat travel programmes Bernard Levin was close to being a household name at the time an instantly recognisable voice amongst the middle classes. But he was himself of immigrant stock a Jew and at least originally very much on the edge of the British establishment no doubt knocking regularly on the its partially closed doors. Maybe this is why in A Walk Up Fifth Avenue he deals so informatively with the concepts of new and old money in New York. He describes beautifully how shady might be the origins of any kind of money but the obvious class differences that the distinction engenders is keenly felt and wonderfully depicted in the book.
Bernard Levin however reveals that he is no fan of luxury for luxurys sake and clearly has little sympathy for any kind of conspicuous consumption. He rubs shoulders with the better heeled at a New York party but gently satirises the ostentation and the bad taste perhaps being guilty of applying a newworld versus oldworld peculiarly British pomposity to place himself above an old money versus new money snobbery. It makes a fascinating juxtaposition of the authors opinion and subjects assumptions. What makes the passages even more poignant for British readers of course is the Bernard Levins long association with satire especially that aimed at the rich and powerful.
Levin is also clearly not a fan of commercialism. The appearance of Ronald McDonald in a Fifth Avenue parade promoted Levin to describe the character somewhat sardonically as a true hero of our time. It prompts the reader to reflect that Father Christmas as we know him today is largely the product of an erstwhile promotional campaign for Coca Cola and his default red and white is not much more than a corporate trademark. And perhaps even the practice of giving presents on a day other than the Three Kings was an American invention driven more by marketing than generosity. One wonders whether a century from now children will sit on a burger clowns knee to receive their annual schooling in consumerism.
A Walk Up Fifth Avenue is much more than a travel book. Its considerably less than a history and never attempts analysis. It is an informative slightly random mixture of whatever caught the fancy of an observant vaguely jaundiced British journalist as he tried to probe the heart of one of the worlds greatest cities. Its an uneven read but doubly rewarding since the book not only takes the reader there it also now offers evidence of its own justification because it catalogues change and invites us to reflect on our current equally tenuous impermanent status.
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Philip Spires
Author of Mission an African novel set in Kenya
http://www.philipspires.co.uk
Michael a missionary priest has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident but Mulonzya a politician exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface a church worker has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet a teacher and the priests neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh however.
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