The Villagers: A Novel of Greenwich Village

by Bruce Elliot, Edward Field, Neil Derrick

When thier effete son Claude succumbs to an opium habit, it is Toom Endicott's lusty bastard son Patrick by Molly, the Irish maid, who carries on his name. Bloodlines are crossed again when Patrick's daughter Alice elopes with an Italian barrow boy woh shares her passion for opera. By WWI, the Village, engulfed by New York City, has become an artistic enclave. Patrick, now a self-made civil engineer, defies his wife and bulldozes the heart of the Village to put through his beloved subway. His son, Eugene, unhappily married, and a new father, finds his real sexual identity on the night streets of the Village. When his father catches him with a man, it is years before he accepts himself. In the twenties his sister Polly is jilted by a roguish enterpreneur Hymie Liebman and she almost destroys herself with sex and booze, but is coaxed back to life by her brother Eugene and his boyfriend Manny. After WWII, it is Polly who persuades her nephew Seth, home form the war, to produce his gay father's long-forgotten play, and he moves on to a Hollywood career, leaving her the last Endicott in the Village...

620 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

After hearing about it on the radio, I sent a poor bookstore employee on a hunt for this book many years ago. I loved reading about how New York changes over the decades/centuries, but particularly because the book keeps itself grounded in a single place. The varied cast of characters also makes it feel like it really is New York.

[Roy Bower · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine story covering 130 years of a Greenwich Village family. If you like generational fiction, this is a must