"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to return to your childhood neighbourhood?"

Flatbush Odyssey A Journey Through the Heart of Brooklyn

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to return to your childhood neighbourhood after an absence of more than twenty-five years? Allen Abel, journalist and foreign correspondent, takes us on a journey to Brooklyn, New York, where he grew up during the 50s and 60s and where he returned to live with his chain-smoking mother in 1993 for a few months.

During a period of ten weeks, the author, accompanied from time to time by his sister, nicknamed "Little Debbie", endeavours to find out what happened to some of his boyhood hangouts and in general the neighbourhood. As he states in the introduction, "How had my homeland changed so utterly. How had parts of it remained so achingly unaltered?"

Abel's journey consisted mainly of wandering along Flatbush Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Brooklyn extending north to south for a distance of approximately ten miles. He would start early every morning from East 31st Street "at an hour when hit men dozed and honest shopkeepers primed for commerce."

In order to enable the reader to feel and taste the present social atmosphere of Brooklyn, the author cleverly divides its contents into seven sections resembling distinct itineraries.

During Abel's sojourns he meets up with residents, storeowners and their patrons, recently arrived immigrant families, workers, vagabonds, and other colourful characters. He describes the places where they live, the type of jobs they have, their customs and superstitions and the clothes they wear. We are also informed of rampant crime where even seven year olds are not immune from being accosted at gunpoint by older men who steal their bikes.

Each and every one of these characters contributes to the mosaic that makes up one of New York's most famous boroughs. Where such celebrities as Lena Horne, Barry Manilow, Mickey Spillane, Mike Tyson, Dom DeLuise, Connie Francis, Lou Gossett Jr., the Gershwin Brothers, Danny Kaye, Aaron Copeland, Beverly Sills and many more once lived.

Abel's wry humour and his profound knowledge of the history of Brooklyn make for delightful and informative reading. In fact we can say of the book it is a true social commentary of a community constantly changing yet still holding on to some of its old traditions.

In 2001 the author returned to his childhood home in order to update the book. There was a tiny glimmer of hope, as in the case of many large North American cities; urban renewal seems to also have taken root in Brooklyn. However, as the author wonders, it is difficult to comprehend why his mother still lives in Brooklyn after fifty-two years and why some of her cronies never moved away.

"Copyright 2002, Bookideas.com. Orginally published at Bookideas.com"

Reviewed by Norman Goldman
Courtesy Bookideas
Posted May 10, 2002

Summary

Features a new chapter. At the age of 43, writer Allen Abel decided to move home to Brooklyn, stay with his mother (in the same apartment in which he grew up), and explore and write about the borough of his birth. For several months he wandered along Flatbush Avenue, the thoroughfare that runs like a spine through Brooklyn. The result is a delightful family memoir and exploration of a unique place. He hobnobs with Mohawk high-steel workers, tries to learn voodoo secrets from Haitian immigrants, commiserates with policemen detailed to the subway, and chats with an ex-zookeeper in Prospect Park. He revisits the scenes of his childhood, samples social life in distant Flatlands, and hunts for horseshoe crabs on the shoreline. Flatbush Odyssey is a revelation, and in it Allen Abel has produced a marvellous piece of storytelling.