Before My Life Began

by Jay Neugeboren

Drawn, under the influence of his Uncle Abe, head of Brooklyn's Jewish underworld, to a life at odds with his nature, David Voloshin escapes to begin life anew in a small New England town

391 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jay Neugeboren is the author of over 20 books – novels, short stories, essays – but I’d never heard of him until Netgalley kindly sent me some of his work to review. And I’m very pleased to have discovered him, as I’ve very much enjoyed the two books that I have read, one a memoir and now this one, a compelling and unusual novel. It tells the life story of David Voloshin, 10 years old when we first meet him, living in Brooklyn at the end of World War II and the nephew of a prominent mobster. He admires and looks up to Abe Litvinov, his uncle, and it looks as though Abe is priming David to be his successor. But things don’t work out as planned and David is forced to take radical action and thereby change the course of his life.
The novel consists of two parts, and the first is much more successful than the second. Life in 1950s Brooklyn, Jewish gangsterism, the rivalry between Jewish and Irish mobs, David’s coming of age and the daily life of the era are all vividly portrayed. There’s an enormous amount of dialogue, and the reader has to pay attention to keep up with what’s going on, as there’s little narrative exposition, but the dialogue adds to the atmosphere and it works. However, after the climax to the first part, the dialogue and action become less convincing. Too much happens on too broad a canvas, often melodramatically, and I found David less compelling, and the other characters too didn’t have the depth of the Brooklyn ones. Nevertheless, overall this is a novel that rewards a careful reading, is often both exciting and moving, and I hope that this reissue brings the author to a wider audience.

[Pam Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the backdrop of the day the war finished with everyone rejoicing and a young boy who shared in the excitement in the streets with his friends, only going down a alley they encounter some men beating up a young lad, someone he knew and he was warned not to tell anyone especially his family who were the well known mobster family, where retribution was their middle name. Its the story of the who who ends up taking control over the family business .