{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0679744940?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0679744940","authors":["Buzz Bissinger"],"book_id":"9780679744948","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/a-prayer-for-the-city-9780679744948","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780679744948.jpg?v=e00187405a1e4efb","description":"From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Friday Night Lights , the heart-wrenching and hilarious true story of an American city on its knees and a man who will do anything to save it. A Prayer for the City is acclaimed journalist Buzz Bissinger's true epic of Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell, an utterly unique, unorthodox, and idiosyncratic leader willing to go to any length for the sake of his city: take unions head on, personally lobby President Clinton to save 10,000 defense jobs, or wrestle Smiley the Pig on Hot Dog Day—all the while bearing in mind the eternal fickleness of constituents whose favor may hinge on a missed garbage pick-up or an overzealous meter maid. It is also the story of citizens in crisis: a woman fighting ceaselessly to give her great-grandchildren a better life, a father of six who may lose his job at the Navy Shipyard, and a policy analyst whose experiences as a crime victim tempt her to abandon her job and ideals. \"Fascinating, humane\" ( The New Yorker ) and alive with detail and insight, A Prayer for the City describes the rare combination of political courage and optimism that may be the only hope for America's urban centers.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780679744948","publication_date":"19981229","publisher":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","slug":"a-prayer-for-the-city","subtitle":"","title":"A Prayer for the City"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"SOC026030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Urban Life","score":0.7494,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL040040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Local Government","score":0.744,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036080","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Middle Atlantic History","score":0.7103,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"SOC026030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Urban Life","score":0.7494,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL040040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Local Government","score":0.744,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036080","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Middle Atlantic History","score":0.7103,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"POL002000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Cities & Urban Planning","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL040040","confidence_band":"high","label":"Local Government","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC026030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Urban Life","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Urban Life","score":0.7494,"slug":"urban-life"},{"label":"Local Government","score":0.744,"slug":"local-government"},{"label":"Middle Atlantic History","score":0.7103,"slug":"middle-atlantic-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in Philadelphia politics and municipal leadership","Readers drawn to stories of urban residents facing economic and personal crises"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Jane Jacobs"],"book_id":"9780679741954","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780679741954.jpg?v=0d90a2f2d404a666","score":0.6764,"title":"The Death and Life of Great American Cities","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780679741954"},{"authors":["Edward Glaeser","David Cutler","Edward L. 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