I'd be fascinated to get your take on Olga Dies Dreaming, probably the only real literary "hit" book I can remember that is very explicitly about South Brooklyn and Manhattan's inexorable leakage first into downtown BK and now increasingly into Sunset Park et al. Gonzalez's writing about that sense of disorientation is so, so specific to my life (versus "hurr durr gentrification bad, something something Starbucks something something skinny jeans") that I was willing to forgive the book for occasionally being gruesomely didactic. But I think you've probably got exactly the right level of proximity to the subject matter to have an interesting take on it.
This is a great site - FdB recommended it and I can see why.
I was wondering why I was looking at a young Brian Wilson on the home page - now it makes sense.
Try Celeste Ng Our Missing Hearts and St John Mandel’s most recent Sea of Tranquillity
I'd be fascinated to get your take on Olga Dies Dreaming, probably the only real literary "hit" book I can remember that is very explicitly about South Brooklyn and Manhattan's inexorable leakage first into downtown BK and now increasingly into Sunset Park et al. Gonzalez's writing about that sense of disorientation is so, so specific to my life (versus "hurr durr gentrification bad, something something Starbucks something something skinny jeans") that I was willing to forgive the book for occasionally being gruesomely didactic. But I think you've probably got exactly the right level of proximity to the subject matter to have an interesting take on it.
Hmmm not really the beach book reading type I see.. ;)
I read Glass Hotel right after Station Eleven, just a few months into the pandemic. A wonderful book.