The Gargoyle Hunters by John Freeman Gill

[viridian5]

I'm annoyed that so much of the plot is "young white guy has father issues"--because we can never get too much of that, right?--but the rest of the story mostly makes up for it. The Gargoyle Hunters--set in dangerous, broke 1970s New York City, when buildings came apart on purpose or by neglect--gives so many wonderful scenes that you can see, like when it opens with a meetup/picnic at the New Jersey dumping ground for the discarded, shattered but still beautiful remnants of the original Penn Station, though the book doesn't name it outright at the time. (I knew it immediately because I follow this stuff myself.) I empathize with the hatred of seeing sculptural beauty thoughtlessly destroyed in demolitions, but here people are doing something about it, illegally roaming rubble looking for finds and eventually trying to avoid damaged goods by truly illegally removing things before buildings are slated for destruction. Griffin's father is obsessed with New York City's architectural past, loving it far more than he seems to love his son, something especially visible as the retrieval efforts get dangerous.

How far will Griffin go for his father's love and approval? How much of a city can a small band of people steal and what dangers would they brave to get their treasures?

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