North River: A Novel [Hardcover]

Pete Hamill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 11, 2007

It is 1934, and New York City is in the icy grip of the Great Depression. With enormous compassion, Dr. James Delaney tends to his hurt, sick, and poor neighbors, who include gangsters, day laborers, prostitutes, and housewives. If they can't pay, he treats them anyway.

But in his own life, Delaney is emotionally numb, haunted by the slaughters of the Great War. His only daughter has left for Mexico, and his wife Molly vanished months before, leaving him to wonder if she is alive or dead. Then, on a snowy New Year's Day, the doctor returns home to find his three-year-old grandson on his doorstep, left by his mother in Delaney's care. Coping with this unexpected arrival, Delaney hires Rose, a tough, decent Sicilian woman with a secret in her past. Slowly, as Rose and the boy begin to care for the good doctor, the numbness in Delaney begins to melt.

Recreating 1930s New York with the vibrancy and rich detail that are his trademarks, Pete Hamill weaves a story of honor, family, and one man's simple courage that no reader will soon forget.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The North River is what real New Yorkers call the Hudson. Two blocks from its shore, Dr. James Finbar Delaney lives on Horatio Street in Greenwich Village. He is a GP, servicing the indigent poor. A wounded veteran of World War I, he is despondent that his wife, Molly, has deserted him and that his only child, Grace, has left her son, two-year-old Carlito, in his care. In the dead of winter in the Depression year of 1934, Dr. Delaney knows the cause of death was always life. Delaney is numb from the war and the abandonment of his family. When he saves the life of gangster friend Eddie Corso, Italian hood Frankie Botts is not happy. Delaney can feel the threat to him and his grandson in his bones. To further complicate matters, the FBI shows up looking for Grace. If there's any consolation for Delaney in the chaos that has become his life, it's Carlito and Rose, his Sicilian illegal alien housekeeper, who has become little Carlito's surrogate mother—and Delaney's lover. Soon the North River comes to symbolize Delaney's tormented life, as enemies and loved ones float in it, and Grace, on a liner, returns to New York to further complicate Delaney's new, delicate household. Hamill (Forever; A Drinking Life) has crafted a beautiful novel, rich in New York City detail and ambience, that showcases the power of human goodness and how love, in its many forms, can prevail in an unfair world. 5-city author tour. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Famous New York City writer Hamill is as closely identified with his native city as the Empire State Building or the Bowery. As usual, his new novel draws closely and intensely from the streets of New York (details are plentiful, and all of them are just right), but, also usual for him, the book's appeal extends far beyond the five boroughs. The time is the 1930s; New York, as elsewhere, is grim with economic staleness. Add into the stew that is New York life big helpings of political corruption and internecine Mob warfare. Dr. James Delaney is himself of the streets, and when his old friend, a Mob leader, needs emergency care, Delaney steps in; however, by that act, the doctor also steps into a rival Mob conflict. In the meantime, Delaney's teenage daughter has abandoned, literally on his doorstep, her three-year-old son, and now Delaney is called on to gather himself in the face of an obligation bigger than his funk over his runaway daughter and his also-gone-missing wife. He takes on Rose as housekeeper, and her presence in his household soon becomes essential. Hamill is not ordinarily thought of as a historical novelist, but if, as the saying goes, the shoe fits, wear it. It is an extremely good fit here. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Printing edition (June 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316340588
• ISBN-13: 978-0316340588
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #386,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pete Hamill is a novelist, journalist, editor, and screenwriter. He is the author of 15 previous books including the bestselling novels Snow in August and Forever and the bestselling memoir A Drinking Life. He writes a column for the New York Daily News and lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old Time Love Story, June 29, 2007

By 

H. F. Miglino "bert miglino" (Old Bridge, New jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: North River: A Novel (Hardcover)

Pete Hamill's writing is a joy to read. Sometimes you need to read a book where there is a happy ending. His descriptions of New York City during the Depression actually outshine his characters and his charaters are really portrayed magnificantly, especially his main characters. This is a good read, no high brow stuff here, meat and potatoes love story New York style. But it is a love story of many people on different levels, not just two people in love. This is one of the few books I read as I was reading it there was an actual picture in my mind of what was going on. Many books you read you would rather not have a picture of the action. Again no great revelations here but a heart warming love story, on many different levels. Read it.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pete Hamill's books are A Gift., June 17, 2007

By 

Ima Reader "Austen fan" (Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: North River: A Novel (Hardcover)

Because I have a huge "to read" pile, thanks in part to one-click ordering, I seldom reread books, but I have to make an exception with this one. The story and setting are both important and interesting, but the characters are what truly make this a memorable book. The two central ones, a doctor and a woman who comes to care for his grandson, are real people you want to believe in. You learn of their past, understand their present and hope for their future. In addition, there is a charming three-year-old boy, quiet and confused, but the catalyst to bring them together. This book is set in the city that Hamill knows so well, in a time before he was born, but it is nevertheless a story he creates with what must be his unique knowledge of the period in history. He never disappoints, and this is certainly one of his best. Incidentally, it would make a great movie, particularly if Martin Scorsese directs!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!, August 13, 2007

By 

Mo Addams "Mo Addams" (Terra Firma - USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: North River: A Novel (Hardcover)

Pete Hamill has written a wonderful book about New York City during the depression. Dr Delaney's wife has disappeared, his daughter took off to pursue the notion of being a revolutionary, and he has been left to deal with his patients and the lives he can save as well as those he cannot. And then one snowy day, his daughter leaves her son in Delaney's vestibule while she goes off in search of her husband who may be in Mexico or Spain or somewhere else entirely. So Delaney is left with the job of caring for his grandson who does not know him, is 2 years old, and scared at having been abandoned by his mother. Delaney hires Rose, a Sicilian woman, to care for Carlos, his grandson, so Delaney can continue ministering to his patients. What happens to Delaney and his newly formed little family forms the basis for the rest of this well-written book.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about New York City and how things were during the depression. Hamill provides a history lesson without ever seeming to be the instructor in a classroom of New York City history. He also captures the hopelessness and helplessness of that time when there was no work but people got sick anyway, and men's frustrations often took themselves out on their wives.

There's also a love story in North River as well as illustrations of loyalty and what that meant during the uncertain times in NYC's history. There is no huge fanfare in North River; just the continuing evolving story of Delaney and those in his world of mob connected individuals, prostitutes, policemen, and the never ending stories of the sick who always need his help.

I loved Pete Hamill's observations on the city of NY and those who inhabited it during the 1920's. It's a very good story, very well told. It's a keeper.