So it's been more than 5 years since I bought this book and now I've finally gotten around to reading it.
Mark Kurlansky has primarily done non-fiction books prior to this, his first adult novel. His focus in his books have been on food.
He opens the book with an Irving Berlin quote that sets the tone for the book and its theme. The main character is not a person but New York in the 1980's.
Nathan Seltzer is married to Sonia and they have a daughter Sarah. Nathan owns a copyshop in one of his father Harry's buildings. The Seltzer's aren't good businessmen. Nathan barely scrapes by, giving his customers way too good deals. Harry is bad at collecting rent and really considers himself an impresario, having represented Chow Mein Vega, a musician that invented the meshugaloo - a combination of Jewish and Latin American music.
""It's a cross between meshugenah and bogaloo. If you think about it, it is a meshugenah boogaloo."
"But what does that mean?"
"Meshugenah, you know, means meshugenah."
"Yes."
"You know, crazy. And boogaloo...boogaloo means everything. It is a fusion. A rhythm-and-blues beat with a Latin twist. It is very elusive, you know. A cha-cha-cha has that three-beat, and a salsa - let's face it, you have to have form for salsa and mambo. But with boogaloo you can do anything. Wave your arms. You can wiggle your hips. You are in tempo. Boogaloo means everything and yet it means nothing. Es gornisht pero todo. You know what I'm saying. That's its appeal. It's very heavy duty. Boogaloo - ahhhh! Forget it!""
A homicidal robber is terrorizing the neighborhood making everyone scared and on their toes. Nathan can't stop thinking about Karoline, a pastry maker whose German parents might have been nazis. Then there's Nathan's uncle Nusan who survived the Holocaust and has a fixation with baseball and classical music. Preferably at the same time.
While describing the plot my major problem with the book becomes obvious. It's very episodic in its structure. This is not necessarily a bad thing, if there is a strong and clear thread tying the episodes together.
Kurlansky clearly has a great love for food, music and New York. This is very admirable but in the case of this book it's not enough. All the pieces are there but Kurlansky doesn't seem to fully be able to fit them together. There are long passages that work, but other parts get monotonous and slow down the flow of the story.
"'"There are only four things in the filling, so they must be in perfect balance. There are always these things, that have to be balanced. The flavor, the texture, the sweetness, the richness. This filling is chocolate, which is the flavor. Chocolate is so strong that you cannot bear it by itself - strong and dark and almost overwhelming. So you add sugar to weaken it to the point where we can taste it. But just enough to taste the chocolate, not the sugar. Then you melt this with the cream. The cream gives richness, smoothness. And it also holds the air. If you have too much cream, it dilutes the chocolate. It becomes boring.""
This passage would have been fine if the book wasn't filled with them. It gets to be quite repetitive.
Kurlansky definitely has the chops. He just tries a little bit to hard. He manages to conjure up New York of the past, but the characters need more work.
The book is also illustrated with Kurlansky's black and white paintings. They are nice but rather redundant.
The biggest problem might be that Kurlansky has so great a love for his old neighborhood that he treats it with too much reverence. Maybe in his later books he will find the right balance. Because who doesn't love a great New York story?
No comments:
Post a Comment