Customer Reviews

Between Two Rivers: A Novel

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Between Two Rivers : A Novel is Nicholas Rinaldi's third novel. I thought his previous novel, The Jukebox Queen of Malta, was one of the better books of the year in 2000.

Rinaldi has followed up that success with another blockbuster novel. Set in a Battery Park condo, Between Two Rivers is an expertly woven quilt of a novel that brilliantly illuminates the subtle bonds that develop between people who, by chance or by choice, happen to live together.

The story revolves around one Farro Fescu, the inimitable Romanian concierge, who watches with keen eyes the comings and goings of the intriguing inhabitants of Echo Terrace, as the building is called. The building's name itself conjures up the themes that permeate this book-memory and shared experience. It is through this wonderfully energetic and nosy concierge that Mr. Rinaldi introduces the other residents, each with a wonderfully engaging and, often, enigmatic story to tell.

The condo's residents mirror the ethnic, intense and farcical nature of New York. Although a novel in format, the construction of the book approached that of a collection of short stories in some respects as Rinaldi explores the inner workings and motivations of each character, but he always segues adroitly back into novel mode as he approaches the interrelationships and dynamics of the Echo Terrace's emotional and interrelational ecology.

This is a book with first rate characters, elegant writing, dynamic construction and, ultimately, a book that provides one with a tremendous sense of satisfaction.

Rinaldi just gets better and better. We can only hope he has many mode books in him.

When i read that Between Two Rivers incorporates the events of September 11th i said to myself "oh no, another opportunistic slice of life tale..." but i was wrong.

Rinaldi delivers poignant characters larger than the Towers, in the end, who help us get perspective on perseverence and living through our flawed decisions. From plastic surgeons and frozen foods kings to despondant relatives of Teddy Roosevelt, this book has it all....

Set within the walls of Echo Terrace, a flash New York apartment building, Between Two Rivers is a smooth-flowing elegantly written novel about the everyday lives of the residents and staff of an upscale Condominium. Rather than offering an intricate plot, Rinaldi expertly interweaves the lives of the characters, tracing how their day-to-day lives cross and collide and become dramatically intertwined as they go about their daily business. At the centre, seated behind his oak desk in the marble lobby, concierge Farro Fescu is the pivot around whom the life of the building revolves. The building is Farro's passion as well as his work, his intimate knowledge of the residents every custom, need and desire such, it seems wires run from his fingers to every apartment. Rinaldi uses Farro to pull the whole together. Through Farro, Rinaldi brings into play all sorts of extraordinary characters, a cross-section of society in fact, who breathe life into the building - and the novel, each with their own very different complex backstory to tell.

Character-driven rather than plot-driven, Rinaldi's narrative cross-cuts intermittently from one apartment to another, spotlighting first one character then another as the narrative focus switches up and down and around the building. The effect is to allow the reader to look through different windows, watching unseen as Rinaldi switches from one apartment to another, and from one scenario to the next - a widow whose apartment houses a collection of wildlife; an ex-Luftwaffe fighter pilot; a plastic surgeon who performs sex-change ops: a frozen-food big cheese who is dying of cancer - revealing in a series of vivid snapshots, the depth and complexity, the heart and mind, of each character in focus.

A series of powerful, dramatic set-pieces including et al, the rape of the Condo's young housekeeper on the subway and the attacks on the World Trade Centre, culminating in the terrible events of 9/11, had this reader racing chapter after chapter through the velvet-smooth prose in what seemed like no time at all; prose infused with surges of anguish and terror that resonates long in the mind. Elsewhere in the book, in contrast, the tone is softer. Recommended! Try also The New Yorker's Wonderful Town and The Time Out Book of New York Short Stories for other perspectives on life in New York apartment buildings.

"Between Two Rivers" is a mesmerizing novel. It depicts the lives of the diverse residents of Echo Terrace, a condiminium in lower Manhatten, concluding with the events of September 11, 2001.

Nicholas Rinaldi is a knowledgable and sensitive writer, as evidenced in his numerous historical allusions, his detailed descriptions, his command of language and use of foreign terms, his philosophical speculations, and more. His portrayal of human thoughts and emotions gives his characters life--life that is fictitious yet real; strange yet familiar. Despite its complex characters, images and themes, the novel exudes a simplicity that makes it highly accessible and easy to read. This is one of the many remarkable aspects of this work.

Towards the end of the novel, we join the characters and relive the tragedy of 9/11 in Rinaldi's vivid representation of that unforgettable day. Nonetheless, the author's words inspire us with hope and optimism. Throughout the novel, Rinaldi's intelligent humor is entertaining and uplifting, even in the darkest of pages.

You must read this book slowly.I could only handle about 30 pages a day. Not because it isn't a good book. It is. The characters get in your head and stay there. They will stay with you after you have finished the book. This is one of the best written books of the last 5 years (that I have read,anyway).
However,I can't give this book 5 stars because ultimately it is just too bleak.Nothing good happens to anyone through 432 pages.
Unless you're Dickens, good writing can't stop a really depressing story from wearing a reader out.
I liked this book,really, but it was too devestating to read quickly. I felt I had to take a break to recover after each session. I work across the street from the WTC so the last 50 pages were particularly difficult to get through. This is not really a criticism though, more of a warning for those considering reading this book.
It is a difficult but in the end a rewarding and unforgettable read.

I am in awe of this novel.

I live in New York City and let me say that this portrait of a city's people is one of the best, ever. I wanted to read "Between Two Rivers" because it is the story of lives that entertwine in a Manhattan apartment building, a world I know very well. Each portrait of a character is propelled by involving storytelling that also has a rare, ruminative quality that are the mark of a major writer.
As Part One neatly ended exactly halfway through the book I did wonder if the stories were going to continue to unspool, beautifully told but isolated, without a real connecting thread that would carry me through to the end, an overall scheme would be a must. I decided that both the love affair burgeoning between two young characters and the pregnancy of an unforunate member of the cleaning staff were pointing to a satisfyingly involving second half. I think this was the same point that another reviewer or two put "Between Two Rivers" down for good. And miss the magic that is the second half of the book.

I do not want to read a novel that deals directly with 9/11. Let it be a contributing undercurrent to any portrayal of modern New York City,of course, but I lived through it and it's still too painful. I thought it was brilliant that Rinaldi used a retelling of the first Trade Center bombing in 1993 to create an exciting story as a distancing mirror to today; the Echo Terrace apartment building in Battery Park City sits so close to the site.
But "Between Two Rivers" does turn into an unflinching and brutal story of the morning of 9/11, and it's too late for the more sensitive reader to turn back. I hurtled in agony through those last pages as my fellow New Yorkers hurtled down stairwells and sprinted uptown.

Nicholas Rinaldi has faced the horror of that day with audacity and outrageous confidence, but he has also written that book I went into "Between Two Rivers" looking to find. Of doormen and drug couriers, bars on Third Avenue and late night trips up the East River on the F.D.R, of musicians and plastic surgeons and Latino blue-collars living on the Queens elevated subway. Each of us is a short story and at the same time a piece of an unfathomable quilt.So much of this city is in "Between Two Rivers".

It is a singular experience to read. Quite extraordinary, beautiful and unrelenting, metaphysical and yet utterly specific, philosophical and with page-turning plots. Again, I'm in awe of this book.

In BETWEEN TWO RIVERS the residents and employees of the Manhattan condominium of Echo Terrace are as varied in their backgrounds and aspirations as the people who ride the subway. Very few things pass undetected by concierge Farro Fescu, a Romanian refugee, who is vastly proud of his job. Keeping a watch over the residents that cross through the lobby all day and night he knows many intimate details of their lives. Among the residents is a Egyptian-born plastic surgeon who specializes in gender reassignments, an obnoxious Wall Street broker who is bent on installing an elaborate fountain in the lobby much against other's opinions, a window who has an abundant amount of small animals in her condo, and a WWII German fighter pilot who has exhausted his 15 minutes of fame. Also included are the various individuals who help clean and repair the units and the building. Under his watchful eyes Fescu knows all their secrets.

I was immediately attracted to this book's innovative and original premise but its strong sense of characterizations kept me engaged. Nicholas Rinaldi does a fine job in not only portraying these individuals but also exhibiting how they interact with each other in an honest and truthful manner. Throughout the vignettes there is an apparent sadness that shroud their lives as they delve into their pasts and examine their life choices. They cannot help to wonder what their life would have been like if they made alternate decisions. It is this overlying theme that successfully mirrors reality.

BETWEEN TWO RIVERS is a provocative and entertaining book that delves down to the choices individuals make in life and their apparent ramifications.

Rinaldi's latest novel, set in a condo in lower Manhattan, is a profoundly rich exploration of an exotic cross-section of the world's population. The lives of the inhabitants, who are an interesting assortment of rich and poor alike, are compelling and fully realized in themselves; yet they intersect in ways that form a rich tapestry of experience, underscoring our popfound need for human interdependence. Executed in beautifully textured prose, these stories are all inner journeys into the self which eventually move the characters towards self-understanding and acceptance.

Rinaldi's spellbinding descriptions of the residents of Echo Towers belies the phrase "average New Yorker." Each character, rich in personal history, becomes more than words on a page. When I finished reading, I felt as though I had been deserted by my neighbors because I was so engrossed in the lives in the book. I recommend Between Two Rivers to those who like intelligent entertainment.

I read a lot, and while I come across many excellent novels there are few that I would hasten to call a masterpiece. This novel however falls into that category. Nicholas Rinaldi has crafted a world inside the walls of NYC's Echo Terrace like no other, and oh what characters he has created. This is a magical, haunting, exceptional novel that is truly deserving of nothing less than a five star review. Do yourself a favour, read this book, it's amazing.