In his 1970 novel, “Time and Again,” Jack Finney wrote that the faces of New Yorkers in the 1880s were more alive than they were during the mid-20th century lifetime of his main character. But the photographic collection “New York” (Assouline, 976 pages, $49.95) offers evidence to the contrary.

A collection of more than 800 photos by 20 photographers, “New York” is a celebration of the city, from its grand vistas to its gritty corners. The enormous variety of sights makes the act of flipping through the book addictive, but it is also fascinating for the multiplicity of photographic styles. The book takes you from the mandatory time-lapse photo of Times Square to a hometown snapshot of a Halloween skeleton to a historical shot of men fishing off the East River piers.

There are, however, far too many photos of luxury retail storefronts. What, really, do shots of Saks Fifth Avenue, Club Monaco, Niketown, Cartier, Chanel, Bulgari, Bergdorf Goodman, Max Mara, Calvin Klein, Givenchy, and Louis Vuitton tell us about New York? Follow that up with photos of the fabulously dressed lying just so on Central Park’s Great Lawn or stepping perfectly out of a cab and the vibrancy of the selection starts to fade.

The beauty of this book is that it can redeem itself in just a few turns of the page. On West 23rd Street and Eleventh Avenue, an irregular cobblestone road holds deep puddles, exactly the sort of thing neighborhood dwellers would have to navigate on the way to work. Two photos in particular evoke that spontaneous feeling that helps New Yorkers keep our patience or lift our spirits. Inside MoMA, a woman wearing a black cap with a large bow blocks our view of Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” but that’s okay: She’ll move any second. We can wait.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a man in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt stands, copying a painting. We look at his version, and we look at the one on the wall. We nod, and move on.

More than anything, the book – like the city – comes alive through people. From Orthodox Jewish children playing games to the participants of a tattoo convention to a family in an East Village shoe repair store, New York is still as soulful as it was in centuries past. And as author and Warhol buddy Tama Janowitz warmly observes in her introduction: “Yes, it’s remarkable, but here … we pretty much all get along.”