An excellent story about a NYC neighborhood and the characters that inhabit it.The thing w/ this book is you don't feel like you're reading the author's story. Nick Kurlansky has succeeded in completely removing his voice from the pages, a feat I have rarely encountered in works of fiction and one that makes the book eminently enjoyable.Kurlansky has wonderful knack for characterizing each individual in this story w/ unique dialog and language - impressive considering it takes place in Lower Manhattan in the mid-80s among a mix of Latino, European and Suburban Yuppie immigrant groups who are all criss-crossing the social strata. Yet none of them come off hackneyed or condescending and coupled w/ his beautiful descriptions of a neighborhood at the height of it's decay (or on the doorstep of it's revitalization [gentrification], if you're a glass-half-full kind of person), you really can't help but feel like you're floating through your own memories. He's really that good.
Set in the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1980’s, Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue upon first encounter seems like your stereotypical “ethnic” story - You have your immigrant Germans, Jews, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans pretending to be Puerto Ricans and those who desperately want the neighbourhood to be ‘up-and-coming’ – and In reality that’s pretty much the whole story. Not much more to it. But it’s these overemphasized stereotypes that makes the book so quirky and warm. I found the beginning slightly slow because the whole time was spent explaining each character in depth, but later I realized that this was vital to the story as it made me feel like I knew each person. Every character became so real, so much so that i could imagine them being my neighbours and acquaintances. Is it a literary master piece? No. But it is a fun read.
What do You think about Boogaloo On 2nd Avenue (2006)?
This is a book my mother would have described as "too ethnic." Late eighties in the lower East side of New York. Jews, Germans, and Puerto Ricans (and Dominicans trying to pass as Puerto Ricans), and yuppies hoping to see the neighborhood become upwardly mobile are just a few of the groups living in the community. Nathan is married and the father of a precocious young daughter, but is obsessed with the daughter of the local German baker (was he a Nazi?)who always smells enticingly of butter. Sex and recipes ensue. Lots going on in this novel, but I never got hooked. Audio version read by George Guidall.
—Bayneeta
