by Prudencio de Pereda ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 29, 1960
This is the first book to be published by the newly formed Atheneum Press. Prudencio de Pereda's third book, though slight, is an altogether delightful reminiscence of what is was like to live in a special world in Brooklyn during the late twenties and thirties. Told from the viewpoint of the young narrator growing up in the Spanish colony situated, then, around the Borough Hall section, the book falls into two parts. The first part called Agapito is about Agapito Lopez, a good-hearted confidence man who was a professional teveriano -- a dealer in cheap cigars which he sold to the unwary at exorbitant prices. There was a kind of justice, though, in Agapito's trade of which he was not unaware: his customers were usually victims of their own avarice. It was the narrator's own grandmother who had persuaded Agapito, as an immigrant, to become a teveriano. He was bright and quick and had a natural audacity which soon made him prosperous and by way of repaying the narrator's grandparents Agapito often took the young boy with him ""on business"" and gave him half the loot. But Agapito was almost too good; his neighbors disapproved of his unusual success and felt that his eventual misfortunes were only what he deserved. Part Two is called The Good Pair and is the term which the narrator's grandfather used to describe himself and the boy. The Good Pair recounts the 16 year old boy's love affair with the beautiful widow Martinez, his grandfather's attempts to secure the famous dancer Manolin, who turned out to be hugely fat, for the annual fiesta, and, later, to the young man, grandmother reveals herself to be a woman of touching warmth and persuasiveness. It was said of grandfather that he was a man of ideals, like Don Quixote. But, as grandmother observed, there are ""no windmills in Brooklyn.
Pub Date: June 29, 1960
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1960
Categories: FICTION
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