THE PEOPLE ON SECOND STREET

by Jenny Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1968

The rejected, the hungry, the drunks, the whores, the fools, the exploiters, the has-beens"". . .were among the people on Second Street -- the Rectory in Jersey City to which the Moores came in 1949. With a dead dog on the church lawn outside, and bedbugs inside. Urban poverty, with a large ""unchurched"" Negro sector, and a white landlord throwing pennies to the ""nigger baby."" This is the story of their eight years there -- as the ""we"" of the rectory, with traditions of privilege and privacy and the ""they"" of the slums all became ""we."" Along with their constantly increasing family, the Moores sheltered all kinds of people they could not necessarily salvage; she readily recognizes the limitations of an open arms approach which invited theft as well as trust; they put up derelicts of many ges and skin tones, from Mrs. O'Brien who literally swept the dirt under the rug to Harry, a dropout from the circus. The Moores lived it -- you read it; it's animated, stirring and uncmphatically eloquent.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION