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rosseroo's review
4.0
The titular old country here is South Brooklyn, generally in the vicinity of Bay Ridge -- an area without much of a profile compared to more well known neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy, Park Slope, Flatbush, Bensonhurt, etc... Taking place somewhere in the mid-1990s, the story revolves around teenage Mike and his ambivalent attempts to shake loose of the neighborhood he grew up in and its familiar but claustrophobic codes.
Mike lives in a small apartment with his father, a former garbageman who retired on disability and now is a neighborhood bookie. He works as a driver for a gypsy cab outfit run by Big Lou, who is the brother of a small-time local hood named Tony. Mike doesn't connect with many people, but has been dating neighborhood girl Gina for enough years that she assumes they'll be getting married soon. However, his part-time college class has brought him into contact with a sexy fellow student from Manhattan, who comes across like an alien creature to him. The closest thing to a friend he seems to have is another driver named Nicky, who's on the slippery slope of heroin addiction.
One night, Mike gets caught up in something serious that makes him realize just how shallow and tenuous his relationships are with the people in his neighborhood. It's a coming of age crisis that takes him further down the road with the local gangsters, but also has him resisting the path that is most familiar and obvious. He's a well developed and realistic version of a confused teenager trying to make sense of his adulthood and path in life, and it should appeal to readers who like their New York fiction to take place outside of Manhattan and among the working class.
Mike lives in a small apartment with his father, a former garbageman who retired on disability and now is a neighborhood bookie. He works as a driver for a gypsy cab outfit run by Big Lou, who is the brother of a small-time local hood named Tony. Mike doesn't connect with many people, but has been dating neighborhood girl Gina for enough years that she assumes they'll be getting married soon. However, his part-time college class has brought him into contact with a sexy fellow student from Manhattan, who comes across like an alien creature to him. The closest thing to a friend he seems to have is another driver named Nicky, who's on the slippery slope of heroin addiction.
One night, Mike gets caught up in something serious that makes him realize just how shallow and tenuous his relationships are with the people in his neighborhood. It's a coming of age crisis that takes him further down the road with the local gangsters, but also has him resisting the path that is most familiar and obvious. He's a well developed and realistic version of a confused teenager trying to make sense of his adulthood and path in life, and it should appeal to readers who like their New York fiction to take place outside of Manhattan and among the working class.
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