Progressing geographically through the city's most important streets, plazas, and neighborhoods, Wilson uses the observations of writers, artists, foreign visitors, politicians, academics, and others to give the reader a "feel" for both the city and its inhabitants. These observations are supplemented with just enough historical framework to provide context. Buenos Aires is a city filled with buildings, streets, and monuments that stir up a great deal of emotion in its inhabitants; what this book does is help to explain why these locations are so important and how they fit together -- geographically, historically, psychologically -- to make up the city.

This book was along with me during my recent trip to Buenos Aires and undoubtedly made my time there more satisfying. Its only real deficiency is a lack of good maps -- there is one, but it is very general and doesn't cover enough territory. Nonetheless, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone traveling to Buenos Aires.

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:


A Disappointing and Boring Data Dump  Apr 19, 2006 By Ray Campbell
Jason Wilson is an editor of travel writing collections of some note, and I have much enjoyed other books in the Cities of the Imagination series (most notably Elizabeth Nash's Madrid volume), so I looked forward to the arrival of this book from Amazon with much anticipation.

I was, for the most part, greatly disappointed.

The book was intensively researched, and you can count on several apt quotations per page. Hardly a signicant writer about Buenos Aires in the last three centures goes uncited, and it seems as if every block on the city grid gets its moment.

The flaw - and it is a near fatal flaw - lies in the organization. Wilson organizes the book rigidly according to geography, going more or less block by block around the city, and detailing who lived in this building or what writer set a scene in that block of apartments.

Whereas Nash weaves the history and neighborhoods of Madrid into broad thematic stories, Wilson tells no stories. He bludgeons you with facts and literary quotations, tied together only by geography. It is a hard and boring slog, and even if you push through, you emerge with no unifying concepts that might help you understand this vast and magical city.

It's a shame, really, that the book is so dull and mechanically structured, because the research that went into it clearly was extensive, and because Buenos Aires seems to offer more potential than most cities for a proper Cities of the Imagination treatment. It reads, unfortunately, as if time ran out for the actual writing of the book, and the writer delivered a data dump organized by zip code.

If you drive a tour bus around Buenos Aires for English speaking tourists, this book will prove a handy reference, barrio by barrio, street by street. If you are researching your own book on Buenos Aires, the bibliography alone will save you months in identifying the books you should read. If, however, you are planning a visit to Buenos Aires and want one cultural guide that will help you understand the living, breathing city, this is not the book to choose.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:


Good way to tour Buenos Aires  Dec 10, 2008 By James F. Welch
I think some of the other reviewers did not think this book was a good tour of this marvelous city. I disagree. It greatly widened my understanding of the cultural underpinnings of the city. For example, before going for a walking tour of Belgrano, we read the part on it to my fellow travelers the chapters concerning that part of town. Instead of just seeing some great architecture and a dynamic neighborhood, we had some idea of what we were seeing. It improved my understanding of the place, Buenos Aires itself and Argentina in general immeasurably.

This book will not tell you about where to shop, find hotels, or restaurants. It may not be the first place to for a norteamericano to begin investigating this important and beautiful city and country. It is an excellent place to begin investigating its literary and historical environment. It is a good book to carry on the airplane ride.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:


An incredible travel book  Dec 22, 2006 By Spypit
Because the book is organized around the cafes, theaters, and other cultural landmarks of particular streets, the book was an enormous help in understanding the city. By reading it beforehand, it allowed us to prepare our daily itinerary from a cultural-historical perspective. Forget the naysayers, here is no better book in understanding and appreciating the city of Buenos Aires as Jason Wilson's book. I've given it to all my friends.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:


High-level view with tons of literary references  May 08, 2011 By Citizen John
Unlike books that tell you the statistics of a city and analyze what it all means, this book surveys literary explanations. I think the book lives up to its title. It is a cultural survey, with a unique way of ordering the history.

Going neighborhood by neighborhood, historical literary references are listed. The key to enjoying this book is to read each neighborhood separately and think of the book as an anthology. Don't look for chronological order cover to cover. It goes by neighborhood and starts all over when the next one is covered.

Wilson makes it clear that this is a fantastic city by cultural measure. There is none like it anywhere.

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