North River
As many of you know, I love historical fiction and am particularly partial to stories set in New York (Brookland being a recent post). One of my favorite NYC historical fiction novels was Forever by Peter Hamill. The synopsis was that the main character, Cormac, was shot and then granted eternal life as long as he never left Manhattan. Cormac then lives in Manhattan over the next 250 years and the reader gets to see Manhattan in its finest glory through the years. I loved this book and recommended it to many friends.
Thus, I was excited when I heard that Hamill published a new book, North River, which was also set in NYC – this time during The Depression. I picked up the book with enthusiasm, but could not get past 20 pages without being lulled to sleep. For complete disclosure – my reading is done during my commute on the train into the city which does have a very lulling effect. However, a good book will always keep me awake despite the rocking whereas a boring book will just cause my eyes to close.
The story centers around an Irishman, Dr. James Delaney, who has had a lot of misfortune in his life, and is living alone in poor Greenwich village, serving his community (comprised of Italian gangstas and your average poor New Yorker suffering through the depression) as the resident doctor. His wife vanished a couple of years ago, his daughter is living in Mexico with a revolutionary and he lost the use of his right arm during WWI which wiped out his dream of being a surgeon. He is living a completely miserable life until his 3 year old grandson is left mysteriously on his doorstep.
Delaney through his toddler grandson, Carlito, and the woman, Rose, who he hires to take care of the boy, slowly reawakens to the world through the power of love and realizes that life is wonderful and vibrant. Sound shmaltzy – well it was. And not only was it a trite and so done storyline, but the history was not even gripping. There were many references to Tammany Hall political power and one of the interwoven storylines centered around two rival Italian mobsters but all of the characters were one dimensional and there was nothing remotely exciting about the events that were described.
I can’t abandon any book, no matter how bad, so I did finish the book and the ending was even more disappointing in its ridiculous predictibility. Hamill is a renowned NY journalist and novelist and has written 9 novels and published many essays and articles. Hopefully North River was just an anomaly in his writing career.
July 16, 2007 7:00 am 
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By DJ Cayenne, July 16, 2007 @ 10:20 am
Yikes. That’s too bad. It’s such a disappointment when an anticipated book lets you down.
By Shaft, July 16, 2007 @ 5:22 pm
I had never heard of this fella until last week when I was in NY and visited with my friend Annette, who told me about “Forever” and how great it was. I still plan to read that one at some point.
By thinkulous, July 18, 2007 @ 7:16 am
You’ve probably know this, but I recommend a really fun book called Time and Again — time travel back to 19th c. NYC, with a page-turning plot. I believe the author is Jack Finney.
Fun!