Search - North River

This was a very simple story, not action-packed, but full of heart. The main characters have depth and substance, a decency and goodness that makes them real and far more complex than I first thought they would be. New York City of the 1930's also comes alive, revealing both the squalor of the Depression and the pervading sense of community and home that the characters know there.

My new favorite author! Being a New Yorker it's refreshing to read about NY in a time that I could only imagine. You'll be transported there.

Solid piece of work about a Greenwich Village doctor whose insular life is turned upside down by the sudden appearance of his two-year-old grandson. The romance that develops is well-written, but predictable. Where this novel really shines is in Hamill's gritty depiction of New York City in the waning days of the Great Depression and in his depiction of the ways in which the lives of the blue-collar class intertwine.

Dr, James Delaney wakes up one morning to discover his infant grandson, left by his estranged daughter, in a baby carriage on his doorstep. The sudden appearance of this baby in Delaney's life pulls him abruptly out of the sad routine of his life in the grim Depression world of 1934 Brooklyn, and into a world of new possibilities.

This is a quiet little story, full of details about the vanished world of 1930's-era New York City. I liked it, but didn't love it--the conflicts resolve a little too easily, and the characters are a little flat, especially the character of Delaney's daughter, who makes an unsatisfying appearance at the end of the book.

What IS appealing is the author's obvious love of the era and the city, and his portrayal of a grandfather and grandson getting to know each other.