BENEATH THE POLISH MOON

A gentle, spirited child grows into a hardened Miami police lieutenant in Kaminski’s coming-of age novel.

In 1960s Milwaukee, youngsters Luke Karpinski and his friends Eugene, Stanley, and Gus are constantly looking for their next adventure. Their episodic pigeon-catching, go-kart–building, and laundry-chute–sliding antics offer an engaging, if occasionally anxiety-inducing, read, and the simple innocence of their intimate friendship is heartwarming. However, the dreamy and rambunctious boyhood idyll transforms into a gritty crime drama when Luke moves to Miami to train as a police officer later in life; his compassionate nature is immediately put to the test with the tense situations he encounters on duty. His career spans the height of the drug war in south Florida in the early 1990s,forcing him to shed the softness of his youth as he experiences the violence of drug cartels and takes part in undercover operations with life-and-death stakes. Luke’s loss of innocence—which starts slow and then seems to suddenly accelerate—is interspersed with vignettelike returns to Luke’s childhood, in which Eugene, Stanley, and Gus are always ready to dream up a new exploit that leaves the boys jubilant and exhilarated. Kaminski, the author of Shadow Wolves(2020), weaves a bittersweet story in which happy memories become increasingly precious to the aging Luke, who’s eventually retired and alone. With a deft touch, the author sketches out the lifelong, meaningful relationships of his affable protagonist: with Luke’s family in Milwaukee, with his childhood friends, with his mentor at the police department, and with the new family he makes for himself in Miami. The narrative’s pacing is inconsistent, which makes the storyline feel somewhat meandering, and the dialogue can be a bit melodramatic at times. However, the dynamic energy of Luke’s early escapades and the harsh reality of the Florida drug war largely make up for these flaws.

An often moving and nostalgic paean to the vibrancy of boyhood friendships and the minutiae that make up a life.