More reviews at The Story Within The StoryNew York City of the mid-1930s is in the grips of the Great Depression and Dr. James Delaney is alone with his work. While he tends to the sick and injured all around his neighborhood, his daughter has left for Mexico and his unforgiving wife has vanished. But when Delaney returns home one snowy night, he finds his three-year-old grandson in front of his house with a note from his daughter. Overwhelmed, Delaney hires a tough Sicilian woman named Rose to take care of the boy. Can he make things work as he is caught in the middle of a mob war, abject poverty around him and Rose’s own secrets? And will his daughter one day return and take the only people holding his life together – Rose and his grandson – away from him? “In the gray morning, wrapped in his bathrobe, he pushed aside the life within the house and glanced through the newspapers: 400,000 on relief in New York, Hitler ranting in Germany, fighting in China, a volcano erupting in Mexico. There was a photograph of the erupting mountain with a peasant in the foreground, dressed in white pajamas and sandals and holding a machete. You missed this, Grace. You missed the volcano. What paintings it might have inspired. I always thought that you had married Mexico even more than Santos. You were not a communist. You were an artist. Or so I thought. And never said.”North River is very much a period piece, placed deep inside the parochial neighborhood setting of the urban New York City between the wars. The flappers of the 1920’s are long gone and the reality of the Great Depression is stark and depressing. However, while Hamill makes sure to describe the poverty and anger of the time, he doesn’t overdo it. He mixes in some beauty and happiness that immerses us in a very real NYC that none of us were alive to experience. It echoes some of the trials we are going through in our present day challenges, but it also makes you appreciate just how much worse things were then. Hamill does a wonderful job of fleshing out Dr. Delaney as well as all of the other characters in North River. Each one of them is meticulously created and artfully brought to life. Hamill is obviously a master of bringing characters into a reality. However, the story itself takes a very long time to develop. We are nearly halfway into the book before any real tension begins to form. In addition, the threats to Delaney never feel all that threatening, and the resolution at the end was pretty underwhelming. But the story really isn’t as much about the events as it is about the characters. North River is not written as much as it is woven into a comfortable read. Ultimately, North River is a good story, with some interesting characters set in a thoroughly detailed reconstruction of 1930’s New York City. If you are looking for a character driven period piece, North River may provide you an enjoyable trip into the lives of that place and era. At the very least, Hamill's writing is itself a joy.
Reviews can bounce between extremes depending upon the reviewers. It helps to find someone who shares similar taste and that you know that if they like a book, you will most likely enjoy it as well. Oddly enough, this person for me is Tom Hanks. Yes, the actor Tom Hanks. I subscribe to his myspace blog because usually in the Fall he posts the books that he read over the summer and includes commentary. His taste is eclectic, and has caused me to read books I might not have picked up otherwise. Tom Hanks read "North River" in what he calls the luckiest he has been this year, reading it in a mountain cabin, in the rain, all alone except for his dog. He also said that after finishing it, he ordered all of Pete Hamill's books. That was good enough for me. And once again, I agree with him. This was my first Pete Hamill book. Reviewers are saying that "Forever" is much better, so I am really looking forward to reading it since I loved this book so much. Many reviewers have given a synopsis of the story, so I will refrain. I will say, however, that when it comes to creating a setting and ambience, I can't imagine a better writer. He totally created a post-WWII New York for me.. assailing the senses with imagery of snowstorms, the Hudson (North) River, familiar songs of the era, etc. This was my parents' generation, and remembrances of our lives together in the 50's hint at the truth of his descriptions. Some of it was not pleasant to remember, such as the way women were viewed as chattel and my Irish-American mother's acceptance of wife beating as normal and pedestrian. It was still prevalent when I was a little girl. You can sometimes hear Lucy saying "Now, don't hit me, Ricky" on "I Love Lucy"...it was accepted. Also, though, there was a sense of community. People knew their neighbors and looked in on them. Even simple details, such as Hamill describing orange peels floating on the river rings true. People ate fruit in the way of a treat during the Depression and I could see he put so much thought into the authenticity of his descriptions. This book had romance but wasn't drippy...a hint of happily ever after without the easy wrap up. Tom Hanks felt the characters would shine in any decade and I agree. They are fleshed out and admirable, people you would want to know, even some of the mobsters. I really look forward to reading more Pete Hamill. First, though... I'm reading two of the other choices from Tom's summer reading, "Quentins" by Maeve Binchy and "Marjorie Morningstar" by Herman Wouk. I'm a little surprised that more people didn't give "North River" high marks...which leads me back to the importance of finding a reviewer you trust that has similar taste. Odd though it may be, my reading compass is Tom Hanks! I hope he continues to share his reading lists for a long time!
What do You think about North River (2007)?
Life is layered. Humans seamlessly move hour by hour through family life, commuter life, work life, social life, whatever else life, and then go home again for family life. Our minds flit from one subject to another without anyone around us realizing we are thinking about pain, wondering about life, experiencing beauty, seeking love. We’re seldom noticed and never congratulated for retaining sanity as long as we remain reliable.tThrough Hamill’s writing I sat on the reliable shoulders of Dr. James Delaney during six months of 1934 New York. I saw the neighborhood family doctor go about his morning rituals and care for an endless series of people suffering from colds, gonorrhea, and gunshot wounds while his personal life quietly continued on the other side of the door that separated his home from his office. The mood of the story was made stronger by Hamill’s use of the name North River. The now outdated name the Dutch settlers gave the name of the Hudson River makes the step back in history stronger. tThe ever symbolic North River was seen through Delaney’s eyes as he suffered the unexplained disappearance of his wife and then the results of the frivolous marriage of his young daughter. After becoming a mother, she escapes to Spain and leaves the three-year-old grandson Delaney had never met to his care. Still the river runs on behind the scenes in Delaney’s life as he begins to care for his grandson and deals with the romantic consequences of hiring the necessary housekeeper/nanny while juggling his downtrodden, needy patients. tPeople like Delaney are unobserved and unappreciated in history books, but North River’s sometimes hour-to-hour and day-to-day pace reconstructs the tone of lives not often recorded. Hamill inserted period gang life into the story for a vivid background that builds depth and questions the differences between gritty urban life and war. The novel flows from that to be the over the shoulder look into the life of a man who was changed by serving in World War I and is still piecing his life together from the scraps that military service to his country as a doctor left him.tFrom first sentence to last, North River flows through the story marking its tone, giving up detritus, assuring life’s immutability, and continuing on without us. Between the first and last sentence is the life of a man treading life’s waters in the best way he can.
—Rebecca
I love serendipitous finds. This novel was for sale for 50 cents at the Gladwyne Public Library and I needed another book to read at night during my week at my daughter's house. It's interesting to me that it follows another book I loved--Rules of Civility--because it is also set in NYC and during the same decade--the 1930s--although this takes place earlier during the worst of the Depression and features folks who are struggling far more for the basic needs of life. I like reading books set in NYC because I am familiar enough with it to picture the places. When Hammill talks about the High Line, I think about the new park there now. When he refers to Washington Square, I think of walking through there at night a few years ago. This is a very sweet love story of second chances for Rose and Jim--and really for Grace and Carlito also. Rose and the Dottore are very good people who look out for others. There are bad guys--the gangsters who fight each other and threaten Rose and Jim and add drama to the story. I could smell the good food but also the homeless shelter, see the dark stairs in the tenements and the people on the doorsteps, and hear the music of the dance hall but also Carlito plunking on the piano. The trauma of the abandoned child and his resilience were written with honesty and truth. May there be more such serendipitous finds!
—Mary
I enjoyed this book. It's not as good as "Forever", another of Hammill's books, but it is written in a similar style and does well at making the reader feel as if they are in New York in the 30s. The characters are rich and Hammill does a good job at moving the plot along at a quick pace. I lost track of the time in the book periodically and had trouble really understanding why Delaney was in this predicament. The true richness of this book, however, are the characters themselves. Hammill is wonderful at giving his characters life.
—Seth Gurss
