Haarlem: A Novel [Paperback]

Heather Neff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2005

“The only thing that’ll last forever is my Thirst . . . .”

So says Abel Crofton as he explores the streets and canals of Amsterdam. A New York tunnel worker who’s struggling to stay sober after years of alcoholism, Abel is searching for the mother he’s never known. Despite having few clues as to her whereabouts, he soon finds a bureaucratic trail that takes him to Haarlem, the Dutch town from which the famed African-American neighborhood takes its name.

As Abel ventures into more new territory, he also takes on his identity as a Black man, his rough childhood in Harlem, New York, his relationship to his bitter father, and his battle with addiction. The questions around his life only get more complicated after he meets a coldly direct waitress and a ragged jazz musician, both also bearing major scars from their pasts. The road leads to Haarlem for them as well.

Welcome to Abel’s search for salvation in another tight page turner from Heather Neff.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Abel Paulus Crofton, the biracial son of an abusive, alcoholic saxophonist and a Dutch mother he never knew, confronts his past in a journey from Harlem, N.Y., to the neighborhood's titular Dutch namesake in Neff's compelling fourth novel (after Blackgammon). Like his father, 45-year-old Crofton, a New York City subway tunnel worker, battles what he calls "The Thirst," but has spent 12 years sober with the help of his friend and sponsor, Serge. Crofton's alcoholism is both a symptom of a childhood virtually devoid of love (save the nurturing of his paternal grandmother) and a cause of a reckless, promiscuous adulthood without meaningful human connection. When his father dies at the novel's start, Crofton sets off for the Netherlands in search of his mother armed only with her name, Justina van Gelder, and a desire to make peace with himself. In Amsterdam, he meets Sophie, a strong but tender recovering addict who makes him do the hard work of introspection and accompanies him on his quest for family, including not only his mother but a long-lost brother, too. Neff's gift for snappy dialogue propels this poignant book about hope: for love's redeeming power, the ability to forgive and the gift of second chances. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Abel Crofton at 45 years old lives a harsh and lonely life in Harlem, working underground for the electric company and struggling daily with the Thirst. His AA sponsor is his only true friend. Abel is bitterly estranged from his abusive father, an erratic jazz musician, and his father's death frees Abel to travels to Haarlem in the Netherlands in search of the mother he's never known. He finds that the city from which his beloved Harlem gets its name has its own allure. Abel also discovers a family past rife with violence and abuse visited by his musically talented but bitterly frustrated father against his Dutch mother. And he finds Sophie, a beautiful Dutch-Caribbean woman, who is struggling with her own troubled past and fight to stay sober. The two of them slowly reveal to themselves and to each other the secrets in both their lives as Sophie helps Abel to negotiate the dangerous underbelly of her Haarlem in solving the mystery of why Abel's father ultimately fled for the Harlem of America. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 225 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (July 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767917502
• ISBN-13: 978-0767917506
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,230,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Review, January 26, 2006

By 

Juss Books "Juss" (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haarlem: A Novel (Paperback)

I'm an addict and I have abandonment issues as this book by Heather Neff brought this up inside of me and I thank her for writing this book that spoke to me.

Abel Paulus Crofton is a native Harlem, New York resident. He lives and breathes Harlem from childhood to adulthood.

We follow his turbulent childhood at the hands of a father who was a drunk, an abuser, and a musician. We follow Abel as he grows into being a man at least physically but with no role model he falters but for him more than makes up for it in ways that speak to him as a young man finding his own.

Along his journey he finds love in one person and that is his grandmother but when she dies he is left alone and that adds to his spiral down.

Coupled with an alcoholic father who was also abusive Abel is without a mother. His father chooses not to share anything about Abel's mother to him so he is left growing up without knowing a mother's love and which possibly adds to his spiral down.

Abel seeing that school is not his thing, drops out, and starts drinking which he does for a number of years.

Eventually he hits his rock bottom and he starts on the road to recovery.

Haarlem weaves back and forth in time as in the present Abel decides to do the un-thinkable, find his mother.

This search for his mother leads him to Amsterdam and along the way he finds Haarlem, which is far different than his Harlem but where he finds a place that offers him solace.

In his search for his mother he comes to find other surprises namely being he finds himself.

I applaud Ms. Neff on writing this book as she has put into words my thoughts and feelings when it comes to being an addict and one who also has abandonment issues and has opened up doors inside of me that I thought were long abandoned.

I have a long road ahead of me but just as Abel overcame, so shall I.

Juss

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (RAW Rating: 4.5) - Thirst, August 25, 2005

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haarlem: A Novel (Paperback)

Heather Neff examines a man's journey to self-discovery while fighting alcohol addiction in HAARLEM. After the death of his abusive, alcoholic father, Abel Crofton leaves Harlem, New York in search of a mother he has never known. His search starts in Amsterdam, the city of his birth, but ends in the tiny Dutch village of Haarlem in the Netherlands.

Abel has both loved and hated the shadowy figure of his mother. Not having any knowledge of her has haunted his childhood. The abuse by his father, the pain of maternal abandonment, and the total lack of love in his life after the death of his grandmother eventually drives him to alcoholism and other self-destructive behavior.

After his recovery, Abel isolates himself from society by climbing deep into the tunnels of New York where he drags cable for the electric company. Although he has mastered his addiction and been sober for more than a decade, he struggles daily with his "Thirst," as he refers to it. He thinks that by ignoring his past, he can simply forget it, which is contrary to everything he was taught in his twelve-step program. Owning his past abusive behavior to the people around him is the one issue he and his best friend/sponsor, Serge, cannot reconcile and keeps him from advancing his recovery.

After his father's death, Abel discovers a lead to his mother's whereabouts and heads to Amsterdam. While there, he meets Sophie, also a recovering addict. She is an African/Surinamese woman struggling to stay in recovery and trying to help her drug-addicted sister get there as well. It isn't until Abel meets Sophie that he discovers the value in claiming his past and finds the strength to help others seeking recovery. Sophie also aids Abel in the quest to locate his mother. With her assistance, he discovers that there is much more for him in Amsterdam than he ever suspected - redemption, love and family.

HAARLEM by Heather Neff is the story of a man in search of his family. Neff draws a deft portrait of Abel as he maneuvers through a foreign environment and uses the theme of jazz to metaphorically describe scenes, feelings, and places, comparing them to various musical masterpieces. The imagery and characterization are vivid, and the story compelling. Neff has written a book to be remembered.

Reviewed by Kim Anderson Ray

of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lost & Found, August 3, 2005

By 

Jazmin Hall (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haarlem: A Novel (Paperback)

Haarlem by Heather Neff is a book I immediately fell in love with, as I have an affinity for deeply flawed characters. Abel Crofton fit the bill perfectly and from the moment he began his journey, I felt his pain and his discovery, the temptation and the hold of his Thirst over him as he struggled to make sense of his existence. Haarlem shows the beauty and power in facing your past before one can ever really find their way in the future and though I know it probably wouldn't happen, I'd love to hear from Abel again. Great novel Heather :)