Eleven Stories High

This poignant memoir of life in Stuyvesant Town, a New York City housing project, describes growing up in what the author deems a "utopia of the fifties." Corinne Demas evokes in convincing detail the friendships, foibles, and fantasies of a girl's coming of age in a "vertical" neighborhood of pets, games, elevator rides, and family life. She follows the process of memory, rather than the conventions of chronology, to take us on a vivid journey of the 1950's and 60's America of Halloween costumes, roller skating, the new T.V. culture, high school dances, and music lessons. She lovingly tells of her father--an unconventional dentist--and her mother, both a traditional housewife and a high school biology teacher.