Book Review: Michael Sorkin’s “All Over the Map”

Martin Lund

Architectural critic Michael Sorkin‘s All Over the Map: Writing on Buildings and Cities is a collection of writings from the period 2000-2010. Most of the pieces have appeared in print elsewhere earlier, particularly in the Architectural Record. But for those of us who do not subscribe to that publication, this Verso edition is not far short of a godsend. The book is at times rip-roaringly funny, at other times abysmally saddening, often acerbically pointed (not fully Menckenesque, but it definitely packs a punch), and, in general, lucidly critical.

While the book is never boring (ok, perhaps on an extremely rare occasion or two, when Sorkin ventures into purely inter-architectural territory), perhaps the most interesting thread is the one dealing with the events of September 11, 2001. All Over the Map reprints columns and articles that give excellent and accessible record of the immediate aftermath of the attack on…

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