Customer Reviews

In Hoboken

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

 

 

OK, if books with lines such as "Thatcher pouts his pouty lips now, eyeballing James's restricted sausage" get you excited, then this is probably not the book for you. But, if you enjoy fiction that steps beyond the realm of 'novel', fitting more comfortably into the realm of 'literature', then you will do yourself a favor by picking up a copy of 'In Hoboken'. Bauman's characters are so real, I almost felt as if I actually knew them. Do I? I think maybe I do. It is a book about friendships, life-changing events, and music. Folk music. This insider's perspective will be familiar to anybody who lived through the mid-1990s contemporary folk scene as it existed in the northeast. Strength in numbers as a group of friends with music in common try to stay true to their craft, with a perpetual disdain for the ever-necessary day job. Flirting with fame, and running from fame. At the same time, the book isn't about music at all. If Jack Kerouac were stuck in the mile-square city, he might have written something like this book.

The characters held my interest, and I kept wanting to know what would happen to them. And that's what makes a book great.

As an admirer of Christian Bauman's two previous novels -- "The Ice Beneath You" and ""Voodoo Lounge" -- I can say that "In Hoboken" is another step forward for one of our finest young writers.

The mid-90s alternative music scene in the New Jersey equivalent of Brooklyn would make an exciting backdrop for a novel, right?

Maybe, but not in this monstrosity.

It is a tale of ridiculous stereotypes meandering through life making bad decisions and learning nothing. The story is bland, the dialog is neither interesting nor believable, and there is nothing redeeming about the characters.