Point Books Toward North River

Original Title:	North River
ISBN:	0316340588 (ISBN13: 9780316340588)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	New York State(United States)

North River Hardcover | Pages: 352 pages

Commentary To Books North River

Recreating 1930s New York with the vibrancy and rich detail that are his trademarks, Pete Hamill weaves a story of honor, family, and one man's simple courage that no reader will soon forget.

It is 1934, and New York City is in the icy grip of the Great Depression. With enormous compassion, Dr. James Delaney tends to his hurt, sick, and poor neighbors, who include gangsters, day laborers, prostitutes, and housewives. If they can't pay, he treats them anyway. But in his own life, Delaney is emotionally numb, haunted by the slaughters of the Great War. His only daughter has left for Mexico, and his wife Molly vanished months before, leaving him to wonder if she is alive or dead.

Then, on a snowy New Year's Day, the doctor returns home to find his three-year-old grandson on his doorstep, left by his mother in Delaney's care. Coping with this unexpected arrival, Delaney hires Rose, a tough, decent Sicilian woman with a secret in her past. Slowly, as Rose and the boy begin to care for the good doctor, the numbness in Delaney begins to melt. Recreating 1930s New York with the vibrancy and rich detail that are his trademarks, Pete Hamill weaves a story of honor, family, and one man's simple courage that no reader will soon forget.

Details About Books North River

Title	:	North River
Author	:	Pete Hamill
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 352 pages
Published	:	June 11th 2007 by Little, Brown and Company (first published June 1st 2007)
Categories	:	Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. New York. Audiobook. Adult Fiction. Novels

Rating About Books North River

Ratings: 3.79 From 4055 Users | 653 Reviews

Article About Books North River

A warm and affecting portrait of life in lower Manhattan during the depression (1934). Hard to put down. I could see and feel the grittiness of the streets, the docks, the subways and ELs, and the people. My only criticism is that the main characters were too good to be fully believable, including the three-year-old who could come up with only one tiny tantrum in the whole book.

I was surprised that this book did not have a higher Goodreads rating and more readers, as I found it quite lovely. Perhaps I was predisposed to like it since the main character, Dr. James Delaney, reminded me quite strongly of my grandfather, also a World War I veteran and doctor practicing during the Great Depression. Though my own grandfather lived and worked in small town Indiana rather than urban New York, his quiet competence, his strong ties to the community in which he lived and worked,

I knew before I finished that I would score this one 5 stars. It's a love story, but so much more than a love story. Dr. Jim Delaney and Ruth Verga are people you would be proud to know. Not because they are such perfect people (they're not) but because deep down they are good, honest, and courageous people. There is a short interview with the author in the edition I read, and he says he made the Greenwich Village neighborhood one of the characters of the story. Aha, I thought, that's at least

I enjoyed this book. It's not as good as "Forever", another of Hammill's books, but it is written in a similar style and does well at making the reader feel as if they are in New York in the 30s. The characters are rich and Hammill does a good job at moving the plot along at a quick pace. I lost track of the time in the book periodically and had trouble really understanding why Delaney was in this predicament. The true richness of this book, however, are the characters themselves. Hammill is

I read Pete Hamill books for many reasons, but one is because I love to see how he plays out his adoration for New York City. The city is more than a location for Hamill, it is a character in his writings. The man is in love with the place, its setting, history, people, quirks and sites. Through him, I get glimpses into the New York of the past, in the days before chain stores and globalization. It's one of the main things that keeps me reading Hamill -- he keeps declaring his love, and I keep

Overall this was a good read with some minor annoyances. A 40ish Irish doctor in the West Village in the Great Depression. His wife has gone missing for a year, their marriage was not blissful since WWI (some 18 years before), his daughter is flighty married to a Mexican revolutionary. The daughter dumps off her 3 year old son and journeys to Spain in search of her husband. The lonely doctor takes in the boy and hires a 30ish Italian woman to care for him. Of course they all bond and he comes to

It was OK. But what I was looking for was typical Hamill: gritty and sharp. And the first couple of chapters led me to believe I was going to get just that. But then the story devolved... almost to the point of being a Chick Book with nice, safe, predictable characters and an ending to match. One thing even more off putting than the story's predictability was Hamill's obvious respect for the Tammany Hall machine that still had power in the early '30s. I don't think I've ever heard Tammany Hall