Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A well-known sociologist explores how the underground economy is dissolving racial and class barriers in an increasingly globalized New York City. Although Venkatesh (Sociology/Columbia Univ.; Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, 2008, etc.) established his career via his penetrating studies of the Chicago underclass, he declares that in New York, a "new world of permeable borders beckoned [where] the criminal underworld interacts with the mainstream world to make the world of the future." He notes that although the book grew out of research conducted since 1997 on sex workers and the underground economy in these cities, it is not strictly academic but also contains elements of memoir. After establishing his essential thesis about New York's new permeability among ambitious residents willing to "float," he delves into more specific social narratives, beginning with the lives of Indian video store workers and aging Hispanic prostitutes against the backdrop of Manhattan's Giuliani-era gentrification. Venkatesh then moves on to a nuanced portrait of a Harlem cocaine dealer trying to decode the lucrative downtown (white) market (a section reminiscent of his previous book) and to the noirish lives of several women attempting to be successful as managers of upscale prostitutes. These women discussed the "large numbers of women [arriving] in New York with a surprising new openness to the idea of using sex work to supplement poorly paying straight jobs." The author displays a piercing sense of empathy and ability to translate dry sociological principles into an understanding of the difficult lives of the urban poor. Less effective are his reveries on his own changing personal circumstances, which include divorce and the struggles of academic careerism, and his attempts to observe the feckless social and career rituals of Manhattan's youthful upper class. Although the overall narrative is unwieldy and at times indulgent, Venkatesh has established a singular voice in urban sociology, and his immersive research and insights remain penetrating and unique. Will appeal to readers fascinated by the intersections of class, prosperity and crime.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Venkatesh, academic and ethnographer, lives within the underground economy in New York while studying it at the margins of the legal world. He states, The more I could penetrate the underground . . . if it was marginal, criminal or tinged with outsider status, count me in. He observes the essence of mobility, with people moving across physical space as well as reaching beyond their preordained lot in life. He finds extreme violence, which he describes as professional, nothing personal, and just business. And clearly, some of those he meets do not survive. At the same time, he observes kindness in the most unexpected places and people with so little reaching out to those with even less with remarkable loyalty and compassion. The people run businesses; they operate with a plan, seek profits and contain costs, hire, and fire while looking for new markets. Venkatesh brings to life the underground economy of New York, where rich and poor of varying ethnicities and backgrounds meet and function while they float. An enlightening book.--Whaley, Mary Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal
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Venkatesh's (sociology, Columbia Univ.; Gang Leader for a Day) research has attracted both scrutiny and awe from fellow academics. Most sociology books don't make best sellers lists, but Venkatesh has a talent for transforming ethnographic observations into character-driven accounts. Similar to his earlier work, in which he immersed himself in Chicago's gang culture, this is a participant-observer account of crime combined with reflections on the prescribed world of academic sociology. In this instance Venkatesh turns his attention to New York, focusing on people who inhabit the overlapping worlds of immigrant-run porn shops, escort services, the midlevel illegal drug trade, and Chelsea art galleries. By following how these people "float" among social circles and by documenting their lives, he reveals networks running between the underground and highly visible parts of New York City. VERDICT At times Venkatesh is overly reflective on his status as a "rogue sociologist" who challenges the academy rather than focusing on the questions he is probing. Nonetheless, this is an exciting and compelling work for general readers. It relies heavily on narrative techniques and is light on theory and figures. Readers interested in the daily workings of the illicit economy will be fascinated by the complexities and contradictions of the underground economy that Venkatesh details. [See Prepub Alert, 3/18/13.]-Ahmer Qadeer, Brooklyn (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
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Crime and vice are the ties that bind an unlikely community of New Yorkers in this fascinating X-ray of the city. Columbia University sociologist Venkatesh (Gang Leader for a Day) profiles and befriends shady strivers, from immigrant porn-shop clerks working a kaleidoscope of illicit businesses to a Harlem drug dealer who supplies well-heeled white artists and hipsters. But Venkatesh focuses on the sex trade: ghetto streetwalkers; Ivy League grads moonlighting as call girls; smug Wall Street johns who insist their dalliances strengthen their marriages; and an heiress who sets herself up as a madam. Venkatesh's engrossing narrative dissects the intricacies of illegal commerce and the subtle ways it both divides and entwines different classes and races, while painting rich, novelistic portraits of its participants and their dreams of self-reinvention. Meanwhile, he weathers his own identity crisis as he vacillates between voyeuristic journalism and scientific sociology. The latter is the book's weakest element-sketchy pensees about globalization, entropy, and "the talent to use and lose improvised social ties"-and nothing that Fitzgerald or Tom Wolfe couldn't tell you about. Fortunately, Venkatesh's vivid prose, shrewd eye, and empathy make him a worthy successor to them as a chronicler of a city on the make. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.