Legendary writer Trevanian brings readers his most personal novel yet: a funny, deeply felt, often touching coming-of-age novel set in 1930s America. Six-year-old Jean-Luc LaPointe, his little sister, and his spirited but vulnerable young mother have been abandoned—again—by his father, a charming con artist. With no money and nowhere else to go, the LaPointes create a fragile nest in a … fragile nest in a tenement building at 238 North Pearl Street in Albany, New York.
For the next eight years, through the Great Depression and Second World War, they live in the heart of the Irish slum, surrounded by ward heelers, unemployment, and grinding poverty. Pearl Street is also home to a variety of “crazyladies”: Miss Cox, the feared and ridiculed teacher who ignites Jean-Luc’s imagination; Mrs. Kane, who runs a beauty parlor/fortune-telling salon in the back of her husband’s grocery store; Mrs. Meehan, the desperate, harried matriarch of a thuggish family across the street; lonely Mrs. McGivney, who spends every day tending to her catatonic husband, a veteran of the Great War; and Jean-Luc’s own unconventional, vivacious mother. Colorful though it is, Jean-Luc never stops dreaming of a way out of the slum, and his mother’s impossible expectations are both his driving force and his burden.
As legendary writer Trevanian lovingly re-creates the neighborhood of his youth in this funny, deeply moving coming-of-age novel, he also paints a vivid portrait of a neighborhood, a city, a nation in turmoil, and the people waiting for a better life to begin. It’s a heartfelt and unforgettable look back at one child’s life in the 1930s and ’40s, a story that will be remembered long after the last page is turned.
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Quirky. If you’re interested in how people lived in a big city before WWII this book is for you. Kept me wondering what would happen next. I enjoyed the book. Hard to put it in any one categoty.
Reminded me of my growing up years.
Kept waiting for it to get better. I loved the book A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. That same era, couldn’t even compare. The only reason I finished reading is because I purchased the book.
Good memoir.
Reminded me of the stories my mother told of growing up during the Depression. Children had real work to do – shoveling coal, selling newspapers on the corner, all to bring in a few extra pennies. But they also had vivid imaginations and created their own fun. More a story of one family, rather than the crazies who lived on Pearl Street, it brings the reader back in time to a difficult point in history, but yet offers much hope for the future.
I loved the humor, play on words, and the way in which the hero handled life. It was a delight to read although I felt it dragged a bit from midway on. I recommend this book but I must admit that I skimmed through a good part towards the last third of the book.
Poor version of a tree grows in brooklyn
Self indulgent and way too long for the little content that was worth reading. I kept wanting to stop reading but kept hoping it would improve. It didn’t.
I loved the characters.
I grew up on North Pearl Street. I felt like I had been transported back in time. This was a story of my childhood. Iloved this book
Currently reading this book. I love reading nostalgic stories that I can relate to. It begins in the 30’s and, so far, is easy to read. I’m only on page 98 and enjoying it.
It is told by the writer what life was like for him as a young boy, growing up with his little sister and his mom as a family having to get by on welfare in NY.
That’s all I have so far.
Wonderful story – too rushed at the end – but overall a wonderful story!
The Crazyladies of Pearl Street begins with the LaPointe family, six-year-old Jean-Luc (Luke), three-year-old Anne-Marie, and their (horribly ill-equipped) mother moving from rural New York to the slums of Albany at the height of the Great Depression. Actually, they’ve been summoned by their ever-absent husband/father, whose abandonment proves final when he never appears at the apartment he’s rented them.
Throughout the next eight years, neighbors, teachers, friends, and relations come and go, moving the story (autobiographical fiction, according to the author’s end note, which perhaps make this is an exaggerated memoir) forward in fits and starts. The pages and pages detailing Luke’s “story games” definitely contributed to the fits. I kept waiting for something to happen, but really the story just floated along, the events no larger or more exciting than the minutiae of daily life. Harumph.
In addition to the limited action, I didn’t particularly care for most of the characters, Jean-Luc’s mother, Ruby, least of all. (I’ll stop for a moment to say that while her parenting skills were abhorrent, I think I was irritated more than anything by the way Luke referred to her/how she referred to herself. I thought I’d scream if I read one.more.time. about her “famous French-and-Indian temper” and her hackneyed patterns of speech.) In any event, the most sympathetic of the cast is Mr. Kane, the Jewish proprietor of the corner store where Luke buys penny candies and the whole block places calls on the in-store pay phone. I could have used a little more of him.
Spanning the Great Depression and World War II, and told from the perspective of a rapidly maturing child, Crazyladies of Pearl Street has great potential, but is ultimately a little flat. If it were an actual memoir, it might remind have the lingering sweet notes of, say, The Situation in Flushing (could I offer higher praise??), but as it’s clearly stated to be a fictional account, I expected a bit more, well, action. (And by this I mean that if an author were to create a “memoir” whole cloth, Lovers at the Chameleon Club is the way to go.) The best I can say is that Luke reminded me often of Elizabeth Gaffney’s Wally (When the World Was Young), similarly making her way in a complicated world.
Lee Smith says that all stories take one of two forms: either somebody takes a trip, or a stranger comes to town. With Crazyladies, Trevanian (and, yes, I think it’s weird that he’s styled himself as a one-name author, the only other one that comes to mind being Homer – but I digress) has proven this wisdom more times than I can count.
Silly. Trite.
Historically interesting. Not so much about Crazy Ladies as about life for a poor boy in he depression.
I remember comparing how much everyone’s lives have changed since those days. For the better-not so sure.
Found it interesting reflection of the times and situation of the young man, but for me a bit difficult to stay interested. Read like an autobiography.
A light read but enjoyable.
I generally like Trevanian’s writing a lot. This one? Not so much. I finally put it aside at about the half-way point. Just not compelling.
This book gives you a view of the depression from a young boys viewpoint.