NEIGHBORHOOD TALES

by Norman Rosten ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1986

From poet, playwright, and novelist Rosten (Under the Boardwalk, 1968; Over and Out, 1972), here is a gathering of 30 short little pieces about living in Brooklyn that are charming, unpretentious, humane, touching, and fun. Never do these pieces claim to be more than they are--and never does Rosten, as a character in them, claim to be more than he is. Famous names come and go here, and they are attached to people no more and no less interesting than the many neighborhood people who aren't famous. ""The other Norman and the singular David (Levine) and I liken ourselves to a raggy sort of Three Musketeers,"" writes Rosten, ""good companions of the neighborhood and possibly happy souls when the weather's right. We sometimes lunch at the Greek place on the corner when our cycles of work and sloth can be juggled."" The local barber, traffic cop, postman and librarian are brought to life with the same plain appreciation and loving care as are borough president Howard Golden (who appoints Rosten poet laureate of Brooklyn, at a dollar a year), or ""the other Norman"" (with whom the above-mentioned lunch), or even Marilyn Monroe (whom Rosten once takes by to visit Benny, a stalwart friend who runs the gas station nearby). There are pieces here about the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn, about the playing of handball, about alternate-side parking, about raising children (when the local cop has a baby boy), and about the nature and mysterious, compelling identity of Brooklyn--as opposed, say, to the rest of the world ("" 'You never left Brooklyn?'"" says a Coney Island merchant, with surprise, whom Rosten hasn't seen in 25 years. And why hasn't he left? ""'I didn't know where to go,' I answered""). After all, Rosten lives in Brooklyn, and that's the real point. ""I walk back to the house,"" he tells us, speaking of a day in autumn, ""into a room where my day begins. At the window I lean out over the low rooftops where the small dark leaved maple will soon slip into its winter death, with resurrection merely half a year away."" And then the lightest, most fleeting touch of Thoreau: ""I stand and look out at the landscape, the landscape looks in at me. We wish each other well."" Free of hyperbole or inflation, quietly honest in their writer's craft and in their feeling, these are pieces not just for Brooklynites, but for everyone lucky enough to have a place to live--or who wishes they did.

Pub Date: June 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Braziller

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION