Customer Reviews

Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue: A Novel of Pastry, Guilt, and Music

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

 

 

On at least three occasions during my reading of this novel, I found myself in tears. Not from sadness, but from joy at the beauty of Kurlansky's writing. I can't really explain this reaction, except to say that it is a perfect depiction of Manhattan's lower east side, and its inhabitants, at the end of its role as the melting pot of immigrant culture, and the beginning of what it is today- the melting pot of American yuppy transplant culture.

The time frame of this novel is the late Reagan period, when drug sales were an engine of economic development for many striving Caribbean immigrants, and something affecting the previous generation of Jewish immigrants' scions. But this is merely one aspect of this multi-faceted mini-saga. Ultimately, this is, in the Seinfeldian sense, a novel about "nothing". But it's a vastly entertaining and engrossing "nothing".

Not being conversant with Kurlansky's other works, I was slightly shocked at his post-conclusion chapter of recipes for dishes mentioned in the plot. I would normally avoid food-themed novels like the plague. However this one could work with or without the recipes or the loving (and lustful) depictions of pastry-making in the "plot". Foodies can consider this aspect as a lagniappe- non-foodies can stop there, and not miss a thing.

I read this book and was pleased to find a fantastic jumble of characters, philosophies, and pathos. Each character, even the "bad" ones, is treated humanely by the author. The last moment of the simpatico culture of this New York neighborhood in the late 1980's is captured joyfully.

Mark Kurlansky, author of best-selling non-fiction niche histories about Cod, Oysters, and Salt, tackled this fiction work, that integrates his Lower East Side upbringing and love of pastry, early on in his career. My version was an audio rendition, narrated by a Broadway actor whose name I can't recall, who really provided color and atmosphere to the reading.

The story revolves around a middle-aged Jewish man and his family, who have lived in the neighborhood for several generations. It's hard to say exactly what the plot is; as I reflect on it, it seems mostly to deal with the man's guilt-ridden affair with a German baker's daughter. Also prevalent, plot-wise, are: a dilemma about selling the family business as the neighborhood grows and becomes more expensive; the travails of a Dominican (or is it Puerto Rican?) trying to get out of the drug business; a murderer stalking the local ATM machines; an uncle's search for the German baker's nazi past; and more.

I was impressed with Kurlansky's intimate knowledge about the neighborhood's ethnic cultures and characters, many of whom must have been far removed from his own American/European background. I lived in the neighborhood during the same period, and he brought forth here vivid details about people who I saw but interacted with only superficially. This seems to me to be the triumph of this book: its wonderland mix of ethnicity, whose unique apsects Kurlansky makes vivid. Stamaty's chaotic cover really nails this aspect of book, and the virtuoso narrator's uncanny & subtle characterizations in the audio version make it a listerner's delight.

Unfortunately, this may be the book's downfall too, as there are so many characters that I became confused... and with all the plot lines, the book loses any natural trajectory it might have had if Kurlansky had focused on fewer characters and plots. I might not have finished the book had I not gotten the audio version. Still, I enjoyed it, thought it illuminating and interesting, and certainly an accurate and heartfelt portrayal of a neighborhood that has, sadly, greatly changed since the 1980s.

From Publishers Weekly

The bestselling author of 1968, Salt and Cod makes an uneven transition to fiction in his first novel, an erratic snapshot of the East Village's ethnic melting pot set during the late 1980s. The story opens with a bang when a Jewish restaurant owner is murdered in the first chapter, a tragedy that sends protagonist Nathan Seltzer into spasms of anxiety as he wonders if he should cash in, sell his lucrative property (the Meshugaloo Copy Shop) and leave his drug-riddled neighborhood. But Kurlansky ditches that promising subplot to track Nathan's erotic, pastry-obsessed affair with the daughter of a German baker. Nathan's brother Harry also enters the picture as he engineers his own affair with a hefty, African-American prostitute and junkie named Florence. Unfortunately, there isn't much rhyme or reason to the rest of the novel, which consists mostly of scattershot introductions of wacky secondary characters, including a Latin drug dealer who becomes a successful restaurant owner, a therapist who tries to help Nathan conquer his claustrophobia while passionately rooting for the Mets, and a singer named Chow Mein Vega who incorporates Yiddish influences into his lone dance hit. Occasionally the scenes are funky and entertaining, but the lack of a story line eventually wins out over Kurlansky's obvious love of the neighborhood.

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a book for New Yorkers - if you're from there, currently living there, once lived there, you will recognize the territory. Otherwise it will all be Greek to you (pastries aside)

the writing is uneven, sometimes annoying, at times poignant. needed more time in the oven.

I listened to this book on CD while driving, and I was often laughing out loud at some of the language and characterizations. Unlike one of the publishd reviewers, I found enough story to keep me attentive; and even if I hadn't, the characters, the talk, the absurdities were worth listening through all 11 CDs. I miss the neighborhood already....

A tsimmis is a Jewish holiday stew of many root vegetables. And that's what this book reminds me of. Plus, it's delicious. I'm reading it now, loving every second of it. Don't miss it if you love food, music, good stories and above all, people. It's a crowded book, for the very social.