With talk around the Ward of block clubs, corner cookouts, and neighborhood problems, I was amazed to read this review today in the current issue of TIME magazine. (CAPS are mine for emphasis.)

"In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time.

What would you say if your 50-year-old neighbor asked to spend the night at your house? You might be inclined to call the police. You'd almost certainly think he was a bit weird. But that's just what the journalist Peter Lovenheim did after a brutal domestic murder-suicide rocked his tony SUBURBAN, ROCHESTER, NY block. 'Did I live in a community or just in a house on a street surrounded by people whose lives were entirely separate' he wondered. Starting in 2002 and for several subsequent years, the author pursuaded a handful of neighbors to let him act as a fly on their walls. What he observed was loneliness and isolation. Lovenheim's IDEALISTIC CONCLUSION : 'ALL WE NEED TO DO IS DELIBERATELY SET OUT TO KNOW THE PERSON NEXT DOOR, OR ACROSS THE STREET, OR DOWN THE BLOCK; TO RING THE BELL AND OPEN THE DOOR.' But privacy-loving Americans who find Lovenheim's stunt nosy will be forgiven for failing to pack their sleeping bags. After all, as the Robert Frost refrain goes, 'good fences make good neighbors."

By Andrea Sachs

While not advocating sleepovers, but certainly knowing your neighbors across the street and next door, I'd be interested in any close-to-home book reviews. Or comments. I do like his conclusion.

Mark