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A review by karnaconverse
Halsey Street by Naima Coster
4.0
A story that highlights how neighborhood revitalization affects the individual families and businesses who have built their entire lives in that neighborhood
When Penelope left her Brooklyn home for college, her father's record store was the neighborhood hangout and her parents' marriage was intact. When she returns a few years later, her mother has left the marriage and returned to her native Dominican Republic; her father's business has closed, and he's in poor health. Penelope returns to a Bed-Stuy neighborhood that has dramatically changed, one that, according to her father, is now more about the "stuff" its inhabitants can buy than about the people who live there. Penelope returns to care for her father but is also grappling with a life she feels is passing her by. She's worked as a bartender since dropping out of college yet pines for a way to express herself as an artist. Her coming-of-age search for self is wrapped tightly within a family saga of mother-daughter relationships and a societal narrative of gentrification.
Coster's debut novel is engrossing and an enlightening addition to conversations that pit revitalization against gentrification. I especially appreciate the fact that she is a native Brooklynite.
When Penelope left her Brooklyn home for college, her father's record store was the neighborhood hangout and her parents' marriage was intact. When she returns a few years later, her mother has left the marriage and returned to her native Dominican Republic; her father's business has closed, and he's in poor health. Penelope returns to a Bed-Stuy neighborhood that has dramatically changed, one that, according to her father, is now more about the "stuff" its inhabitants can buy than about the people who live there. Penelope returns to care for her father but is also grappling with a life she feels is passing her by. She's worked as a bartender since dropping out of college yet pines for a way to express herself as an artist. Her coming-of-age search for self is wrapped tightly within a family saga of mother-daughter relationships and a societal narrative of gentrification.
Coster's debut novel is engrossing and an enlightening addition to conversations that pit revitalization against gentrification. I especially appreciate the fact that she is a native Brooklynite.