Flat/White
Flat/White
The Strange Case of a New Immigrant in an Old Building and Things Going Badly
When the journalist Ted Botha moved from South Africa to New York, it was to broaden his horizons. But soon he found himself focusing on just one thing – a crazy building.
To start with, luck was on his side. He landed a job at a hip new magazine, and then found a cheap rental in an old tenement in Harlem. When it came up for sale, he couldn’t believe the price. Several blocks away, apartments were selling for $1million or more, but his was priced at a fraction of that – $10,000.
Then Botha’s luck ran out. A chance to fi x up the dilapidated building laid bare a world of chaos, lies, suspicion, hate, drug dealers, detective work, police raids and death threats. In what had previously felt like a happy, harmonious area, racism reared its ugly head, and Botha’s white South Africanness suddenly became a liability. Things got worse daily, and he wondered if he could ever survive the anarchy inside his building.
In equal parts memoir, comedy and tragedy – not to mention a travelogue into the backstreets of New York, and the grammar that Botha learnt there – Flat/White brings to life a cast of characters and a strange, funny, and heart-moving story of a hidden city.
“Botha’s book describes a New York that exists way beyond the usual tourist haunts. An acute observer with an eye for the illuminating social detail, his rueful account of his attempts to negotiate the obstacles and fathom foreign ways is consistently amusing and occasionally profound.”
“A beautiful, heartfelt memoir of life in a hidden city.”
“This book is something of a love story, with rats. I enjoyed it hugely.”
““It’s a delightful book … Part memoir, part travelogue, part comedy, with occasional forays into US spelling, this book is something of a love story, with rats. I enjoyed it hugely.” ”
““It’s the story of a foreigner, an expat trying to fit in abroad, and failing.””