The diversity of contemporary London is
extraordinary, and begs to be better understood. Never
before have so many people from such diverse backgrounds
been free to mix and not to mix in close proximity to
each other. But increasingly people's lives take place
behind the closed doors of private houses. How can we
gain an insight into what those lives are like today?
Not television characters, not celebrities, but real
people. How could one ever come to know perfect
strangers? Danny Miller attempts to achieve this goal in
this brilliant expose of a street in modern London. He
leads us behind closed doors to thirty people who live
there, showing their intimate lives, their aspirations
and frustrations, their tragedies and accomplishments.
He places the focus upon the things that really matter
to the people he meets, which quite often turn out to be
material things, the house, the dog, the music, the
Christmas decorations. He creates a gallery of
portraits, some comic, some tragic, some cubist, some
impressionist, some bleak and some exuberant. We find
that a random street in modern London contains the most
extraordinary stories.Mass murderers and saints, the
most charmed Christmas since Fanny and Alexander and the
story of how a CD collection helped someone overcome
heroin. Through this sensitive reading of the ordinary
lives of ordinary people, Miller uncovers the orders and
forms through which people make sense of their lives
today. He shows just how much is to be gained when we
stop lamenting what we think we used to be, and instead
concentrate on what we are becoming now. He reveals
above all the sadness of lives and the comfort of
things. |
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