Pete Hamill (1935–2020)

Good read if you are taking a trip to Manhattan. Hamill takes you from the tip of Manhattan up to about Times Square, with plenty of history of the city along the way, describing lots of buildings that are still there, as well as those that are gone, with lots of personal history as well. Good stuff, and a good source of places to stop and visit, some that you may miss otherwise. As the book goes on, it seems to be more of a list than the details that were present early, with lots of name dropping. Still, the personal history and those names were pretty fascinating. A good, fast read.… (more)

Sam Briscoe is a reporter from the United States come to Belfast to write about the war there. The bloody war that has split Ireland in two. The IRA, the UVF, the SAS. Protestants versus Catholics. The whole bloody mess.
His uncle is murdered, he’s being followed, and his daughter is caught up in the middle of it. That part of the book is pretty good! But I was really bored with all the detail given to the conflict in Ireland. 800 years of Irish history, and a lot of it seemed to be on these pages! I was very much into the crime, the chase, and the action! I just wasn't reading this for a history lesson.

“She’s safe. Other people are dead, but my daughter is safe. That’s it. The game’s over.”… (more)

‘’In that lost city of memory, the wind is always blowing hard from the harbor and the snow is packed tightly on the hills of Prospect Park. They are skating on the Big Lake and the hallways of the tenements are wet with melted snow and the downtown stores are glad with blinking lights and the churches smell of pine and awe.’’

Pete Hamill’s stories transport us to Brooklyn, in a time when everything seemed simple, and much more innocent. From the 50s to the 80s, his stories echo the struggles of people who love, deceive, hate, hope, kill. Bittersweet, harrowing, hopeful, tragic, every page gives us a glimpse into the lives of women and men who faced a reality that had nothing to do with today’s world where only cheap mottos, made up by dubious individuals can be heard. Yes, times were hard back then but, at least, people believed. Today, most of us demonstrate our endless idiocy, our empty, superficial ‘minds’ and our blabbering, severely overused mouths.
I’d rather spend all my life in the poor Brooklyn neighbourhoods of the 50s than our falsely affluent cities, full of illiterate influencers and Youtubers who poison the minds of our children.

These are my favourite stories in the collection.

‘’There were other drawings too; buildings with spirals of black cloud issuing from chimneys; barefoot men with shaved heads and gray pajamas; watchtowers; barbed wire.’’

The Christmas Kid: In one of the most moving stories I’ve ever read, a boy who has survived the nightmare of the German demons, finds warmth and kindness in the city of New York. But demons are always lurking nearby…

The Price of Love: A divorced man tries to decipher his feelings for his ex-wife.

The Love of His Life: A man spends all his life waiting for the girl of his youth.

‘’He always loved this time of the New York day, when the sun faded and the light turned a warm grey, softening the hard edges of the world.’’

Good-bye: A married couple has to face the toughest decision.

6/6/44: A story paying tribute to D-Day, the day when Hitler’s reign of terror came to an end, the day to which we all owe our freedom.

The Men in Black Raincoats: The crime of a former IRA man comes back to haunt him.

Gone: A man becomes the victim of a peculair crime. Judging by the current state of our cities, full of ‘’citizens’’ of a barbaric ‘faith’ that dictates them to decapitate babies and rape dead women, I can’t say I blame him…

The Second Summer: A Muslim young woman from Syria has to obey her heathen parents and their law of Allah.

The Man With the Blue Guitar: An Italian widow falls in love with a young Greek man but her late husband’s brother has other views in mind.

The Waiting Game: In a too-good-to-be-true story, a man waits patiently for the love of his life.

Up the Roof: A woman who has lost her husband in the Korean War finds solace in an unlikely place. But will it last?

The Book Signing: In a shocking story, a successful writer cannot escape the fate that cries for retribution.

This collection is not for today’s audience. It seemingly has no place in a ‘culture’ of tattoos, unwashed wannabe- Che Guevaras who live in luxury and selfie-takers. However, there is always the blessed minority of the sane who will treasure a world that has disappeared forever.

‘’I must be healing, he thought. I don’t fear, I don’t love, I don’t hate. The wound is closed. I am alone. I am indifferent. I have survived.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/… (more)