MEET ME BY THE FOUNTAIN: An Inside History of the Mall
Author: Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Price: $28
Pages: 310
Like people and clouds and cars, malls come in many shapes and colours. But malls have certain bedrock commonalities. A handful of these are physical: Food courts, escalators, kiosks, benches, plants, restrooms, parking. Others are intangible. Malls are an ambiguous blend of public and private space — open to all in theory but inaccessible to many in practice. They are recreational zones, community hubs, surveillance centres, temples to consumerism, places where loitering is encouraged until the mall cops kick you out for loitering too much or