KNICKERBOCKER GARDENS

by Caleb Bruce ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 27, 1941

A first novel and a find, this scrupulously convincing portrait of a newly developed suburb of a large city. The period is the 1927-37 decade; the characters include all classes and races, living in and bordering on Knickerbocker Gardens. Some may label it as a Dreiser-Dos Passos-Lewis derivative, but it stands on its own feet as a remarkable likeness of a little studied sector of America. As the book opens, fifteen assorted families are introduced; towards the close, the story converges until two of the younger generation carry through. The noisy twenties, the boom years the panic, the slow lowering of the economic level, the chipping away of exteriors, the levelling down of snobbery and prejudice as the younger generation escape the pattern of their elders. The book is holding reading, and while Bruce is stacking himself against top men in his field, his people, his action, his background are uniformly convincing, and he establishes himself on his own ground. Watch this.

Pub Date: Oct. 27, 1941

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1941

Categories: FICTION