Tales of Times Square

Thank heavens that Josh Alan Friedman has chronicled his stories of 42nd Street sleaze in this book and Tales of Times Square.Someday these books will be treasured along with Herbert Asbury's.

This may very well be the best book on Times Square,so far ( compared to Samuel Delany's "Times Square Red, Times Square Blue" and Bill Landis & Michelle Clifford's "Sleazoid Express").Josh Alan Friedman reads like a cross between Damon Runyan, and Studs Terkel, with a big dose of Jimmy Breslin vocabulary. He definitely tells it like it was, from the early history of vaudeville, to burlesque, to porno grinders, Plato's Retreat, and live sex shows. And, he heralds its demise, even in the early 80's. His character sketches are priceless! It's funny, erotic, dirty, and, at times, downright repugnant, a veritable Dantesque tour of sleaze. Welcome to the Forty Duece,suckers!

This is the best document ever written about pre-AIDs pre crack Times Square. Koch era New York was the golden age of Times Square and no book captures it with less judgement than this.

I found this work to be a very good description ot the old Times Square...that is prior to 1983. I was familiar with many of the establishments described and some of the people. Friedman's use of imagery is outstanding. He helped me to understand for the first time things that I had seen thousands of times. The author's tone is perfect. He is without moral condemnation and without excuse for the charaters in the book. His tone is one of amused...and amusing disgust. Future historians may doubt that such a place ever existed, but Freidman's description is so very true.

An amazing look back at a Times Square gone by. Characters like this rarely exist in fiction, much less fact. Strippers, cops, peep show custodians..they're all here. The author has a Nelson Algren style...every vignette reads like a short story. Shocking!!! You'll talk about it for years.