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Barren Island
How does one remember a world that literally no longer exists? How do the moral imperatives to do so correspond to the personal needs that make it possible? Told from the point-of-view of Marta Eisenstein Lane on the occasion of her 80th birthday, Barren Island is the story of a factory island in New York’s Jamaica Bay, where the city’s dead horses and other large animals were rendered into glue and fertilizer from the mid-19th century until the 1930’s. The island itself is as central to the story as the members of the Jewish, Greek, Italian, Irish, and African-American factory families that inhabit it, including those who live their entire lives steeped in the smell of burning animal flesh.
The story begins with the arrival of the Eisenstein family, immigrants from Eastern Europe, and explores how the political and social upheavals of the 1930’s affect them and their neighbors in the years between the stock market crash of October 1929 and the start of World War II ten years later. Labor strife, union riots, the New Deal, the World’s Fair, and the struggle to save European Jews from the growing threat of Nazi terror inform this novel as much as the explosion of civil and social liberties between the two World Wars. Barren Island, finally, is a novel in which the existence of God is argued with a God that may no longer exist or, perhaps, never did.
The story begins with the arrival of the Eisenstein family, immigrants from Eastern Europe, and explores how the political and social upheavals of the 1930’s affect them and their neighbors in the years between the stock market crash of October 1929 and the start of World War II ten years later. Labor strife, union riots, the New Deal, the World’s Fair, and the struggle to save European Jews from the growing threat of Nazi terror inform this novel as much as the explosion of civil and social liberties between the two World Wars. Barren Island, finally, is a novel in which the existence of God is argued with a God that may no longer exist or, perhaps, never did.
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First published January 1, 2016
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January 24, 2018
Barren Island by Carol Zoref won the AWP Prize for the Novel and was longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction.
“Ask about the smell.”
This well-researched and engaging book tells the story of a group of immigrant families from Eastern Europe, Italy, and Greece, living on a virtual sand bar island in Jamaica Bay off the coast of Brooklyn, New York, in the year leading up to World War II. We see Barren Shoal, the island right next to Barren Island, through the eyes of a young girl, Marta Eisenstein, as she comes of age on this repulsive spot of land that is the only home she has ever known. The men work at the only factory on the island rendering animal carcasses into glue. It is a squalid and hardscrabble existence suffused with strange beauty and love. Through Marta, the reader meets all the characters and gets a vivid glimpse into a real world known to only a handful of residents. The families have formed into a supportive neighborhood where they all look out for one another. As heartbreaking tragedies hit the island, the families come together to support one another, even though for some, the tragedies scar them forever.
Barren Island is an honest book full of heart and spirit. In many ways, it reminded me of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, showing the hardships of factory work in immigrant communities and the need to organize labour. It is a real pity that it did not go beyond a place on the longlist for the National Book Award. I personally think it should have gone much further.
“Ask about the smell.”
This well-researched and engaging book tells the story of a group of immigrant families from Eastern Europe, Italy, and Greece, living on a virtual sand bar island in Jamaica Bay off the coast of Brooklyn, New York, in the year leading up to World War II. We see Barren Shoal, the island right next to Barren Island, through the eyes of a young girl, Marta Eisenstein, as she comes of age on this repulsive spot of land that is the only home she has ever known. The men work at the only factory on the island rendering animal carcasses into glue. It is a squalid and hardscrabble existence suffused with strange beauty and love. Through Marta, the reader meets all the characters and gets a vivid glimpse into a real world known to only a handful of residents. The families have formed into a supportive neighborhood where they all look out for one another. As heartbreaking tragedies hit the island, the families come together to support one another, even though for some, the tragedies scar them forever.
Barren Island is an honest book full of heart and spirit. In many ways, it reminded me of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, showing the hardships of factory work in immigrant communities and the need to organize labour. It is a real pity that it did not go beyond a place on the longlist for the National Book Award. I personally think it should have gone much further.
October 9, 2017
I'm reading the National Book Award Longlist so that you don't have to! Book 4/10
This was the dark horse of the Fiction Longlist. It didn't have a goodreads page and my library (which has everything) didn't own a copy. I'm glad they bought some after the nominations, because I got my hands on one and it was fantastic.
This novel is the remembered childhood of a woman (Marta) who came of age in the depression era on a tiny island off of Brooklyn called Barren Shoal. Barren Shoal had one thing: a factory that ground up dead animals for whatever they could get from them (glue, other nastiness). The putrid smell and general ick of it all is captured perfectly throughout.
The only people who live on Barren Shoal are factory workers and their families, so although near NYC, she grows up in an impossibly small community with a one-room schoolhouse kind of setup. Marta walks us through the challenges faced by her small community, the focus being laborer issues; what people were going through at that time to secure fair treatment and safe working conditions is disturbing but interesting.
Overall, I loved this book for its believable coming-of-age protagonist story as well as its boldness in breaking down a life during a difficult time in our history.
This was the dark horse of the Fiction Longlist. It didn't have a goodreads page and my library (which has everything) didn't own a copy. I'm glad they bought some after the nominations, because I got my hands on one and it was fantastic.
This novel is the remembered childhood of a woman (Marta) who came of age in the depression era on a tiny island off of Brooklyn called Barren Shoal. Barren Shoal had one thing: a factory that ground up dead animals for whatever they could get from them (glue, other nastiness). The putrid smell and general ick of it all is captured perfectly throughout.
The only people who live on Barren Shoal are factory workers and their families, so although near NYC, she grows up in an impossibly small community with a one-room schoolhouse kind of setup. Marta walks us through the challenges faced by her small community, the focus being laborer issues; what people were going through at that time to secure fair treatment and safe working conditions is disturbing but interesting.
Overall, I loved this book for its believable coming-of-age protagonist story as well as its boldness in breaking down a life during a difficult time in our history.
October 24, 2017
Ms. Zoref declares her novel is An Important Work Of Fiction on Page 1, with the heading "Chapter Zero." In other words, the concepts explored in "Barren island" are far too important to allow for narrative conventions like prologues (or plots or coherence or character development or . . . okay, I'm getting ahead of myself). If you decide yourself worthy enough to keep reading, you'll discover that Ms. Zoref has achieved a miracle in "Barren Island:" she's written a work of Magic Realism with no magic. In the tradition of Morrison or Marquez, Ms. Zoref's characters exist in an improbably symbolic universe -- an ethnically heterogeneous slum surrounding a glue factory on an island in New York Harbor in the early 20th Century. (Note: she writes about the denizens of Barren Shoal, not the larger Barren Island nearby, which we never visit. Is naming a novel after a setting where none of the action takes place and is of no importance to the narrative an act of epistemological defiance, or just really bad copy editing? I'm not sure I'll ever know. I'm quite certain I'll never care.) Her narrator, an impossibly long-winded 80-year-old named Marta Eisenstein, seems ready to be buffeted by the impersonal forces of history but all she -- and everyone else on the damn island -- ever does is mention them, listening to, say, the 1936 Olympics while people have sex, die in accidents, and complain about the stench of decomposing horses. The history might be interesting if it weren't for two reasons: (a) it's as familiar as "This Day In History" column from your local newspaper, and (b) it's not accurate. The first movie which young Marta ever sees is "The Life of Emile Zola" which she says stars Paul Muni as . . . Alfred Dreyfus. One word (or maybe four letters), Ms. Zoref: IMDb.
Then, of course, there's her prose. More than any other writer working today, Carol Zoref is the heir to Ernest Hemingway. Yes, that's a harsh criticism, but if you bother with "Barren Island," you'll know what I mean. Marta speaks in endless simple sentences. It seems like a character choice until this 80-year-old with barely a high school education starts making observations worth of a middlebrow novelist. Then it become a style. It becomes a tiresome style.
The most emblematic chapter of "Barren Island," after of course Chapter Zero, is the one in which Marta discovers that her older brother Noah is a homosexual. She sneaks a peak at Noah's diary, which is written mostly in French except for the graphic depiction of his encounters with the old gatekeeper. All revelations should be so facile.
Then, of course, there's her prose. More than any other writer working today, Carol Zoref is the heir to Ernest Hemingway. Yes, that's a harsh criticism, but if you bother with "Barren Island," you'll know what I mean. Marta speaks in endless simple sentences. It seems like a character choice until this 80-year-old with barely a high school education starts making observations worth of a middlebrow novelist. Then it become a style. It becomes a tiresome style.
The most emblematic chapter of "Barren Island," after of course Chapter Zero, is the one in which Marta discovers that her older brother Noah is a homosexual. She sneaks a peak at Noah's diary, which is written mostly in French except for the graphic depiction of his encounters with the old gatekeeper. All revelations should be so facile.
October 22, 2017
I loved learning about the history of Barren Island, off the coast of New York near Brooklyn, where garbage and animal carcasses were rendered into glue and other products. The stench was overwhelming, yet families lived there, illustrated by the coming-of-age experiences of the main character, Marta, in the form of an autobiography or memoir.
This fascinated me.
But a criticism is that often Marta would editorialize, offer explanations, or ask questions to herself about why something was said or done by various characters. This felt exaggerated to me. In my own life, I sometimes question a motive of someone, or sometime make a judgment about something that happens, but in this story it felt non-stop with Marta, and sort of drove me crazy.
Also, the latter half of the book sometimes felt like a history lesson about the development of the labor movement in the U.S., as well as Hitler's Germany. The history lessons took over the story and Marta sort of got lost in the shuffle.
Finally, unfortunately, the proof-reader missed several grammatical goofs in the publication.
However, in spite of these points, I am grateful for this book and all I learned about Barren Island.
This fascinated me.
But a criticism is that often Marta would editorialize, offer explanations, or ask questions to herself about why something was said or done by various characters. This felt exaggerated to me. In my own life, I sometimes question a motive of someone, or sometime make a judgment about something that happens, but in this story it felt non-stop with Marta, and sort of drove me crazy.
Also, the latter half of the book sometimes felt like a history lesson about the development of the labor movement in the U.S., as well as Hitler's Germany. The history lessons took over the story and Marta sort of got lost in the shuffle.
Finally, unfortunately, the proof-reader missed several grammatical goofs in the publication.
However, in spite of these points, I am grateful for this book and all I learned about Barren Island.
May 26, 2018
A somewhat sprawling, if tightly focused novel about an unusual American immigrant subset from the 20th century. I say "sprawling" because it's over 400 pages (sprawling for contemporary fiction anyway! :P) and tightly focused because it's a bildungsroman. Even if it's technically narrated by the protagonist on her 80th birthday.
Marta Eisenstein's Ashkenazi parents immigrate to America from a town that keeps changing locations between Russia and Poland. That sort of political upheaval doesn't let up in the book. Rather than following a more traditional trajectory, say, to the Lower East Side, Marta's dad takes a job on a "trash island" off of Brooklyn, where he butchers dead horses in a factory to make glue and grease. Zoref centers her action on Barren Shoal, which doesn't appear to have been a real place, though its neighbor, Barren Island, was in fact historical.
Zoref does an admirable job in setting up her location--as another reviewer mentioned, you'd be glad this book doesn't come with Smell-O-Vision. :P Marta describes all sorts of things, from the smell of decomposing bodies and waste wafting through everything, to the rats (and sometimes humans) who scavenge for trash, to the seagulls squawking overhead near the grimy water. It's a place that's disgusting, but for the characters it's ultimately home.
The socio-political elements are also at play, from the diverse array of European immigrants (plus African Americans, who are the most segregated and have the worst jobs), to the proliferation of Labor concerns. Marta's older brother, Noah, and his friends are continually trying to hook up with organizers on "the main land" in attempts to force humane working conditions on their island's factory. I've been reading a lot of books lately about how American Jews brushed up against socialism and communism in the early 20th century, and this one gives a very comprehensive depiction. Meanwhile, the Great Depression is raging, but the island's isolated conditions (everyone who lives there works in the factory and people grow their own food in gardens) keep many residents out of dire poverty. From there, of course, we move to Hitler's rise to power, and the fruitless attempts of the Eisenstein family to liase with HIAS to get their remaining relatives out of Europe.
I have to be spoilery to make this connection, but in a way the fate of Barren Shoal mirrors the fate of European Jews. They fought for survival, for recognition against an indifferent-to-cruel system, and were ultimately displaced (at least not murdered, of course, for where similarities diverge.) Marta reigns down a lot of opinions from the future (with amusing, old lady "if you will excuse me" asides) about corruption, the dark side of human nature and the dangers of ideology. (She's not a character who connects with the religious side of Judaism so much. :P) It's not necessarily a bleak book, but it justifiably has the feel of an old woman taking a look at her, and the world's, tumultuous past, and passing judgement.
Still, to a degree, this first person, retrospective narration works against the book. I dunno, maybe I'm too soon off of FAHRENHEIT 451 to be forgiving of lectures. Marta's prevalent opinions, plus her embellishments about future events, can take away from the drive of the story in the "here and now" of the main action. Maybe it adds more texture to American history, but it also narrows the characters and situations around Marta in the past. (For example, why does Marta only have one friend? Am I being too nitpicky?) I got the feeling of the story being glossed over and simplified a little bit, which makes sense because Marta is looking back from across decades. But if Zoref were to tell this story in third person, without any time jumps, perhaps it would be more complex and less moralistic. I know that's personal taste to a degree (I almost always prefer third person) but I've also tried to apply that advice specifically to this book.
But overall I liked the characters and think that Zoref provided a unique perspective into American life and history. I can see why this book got the buzz. :P So kudos!
Marta Eisenstein's Ashkenazi parents immigrate to America from a town that keeps changing locations between Russia and Poland. That sort of political upheaval doesn't let up in the book. Rather than following a more traditional trajectory, say, to the Lower East Side, Marta's dad takes a job on a "trash island" off of Brooklyn, where he butchers dead horses in a factory to make glue and grease. Zoref centers her action on Barren Shoal, which doesn't appear to have been a real place, though its neighbor, Barren Island, was in fact historical.
Zoref does an admirable job in setting up her location--as another reviewer mentioned, you'd be glad this book doesn't come with Smell-O-Vision. :P Marta describes all sorts of things, from the smell of decomposing bodies and waste wafting through everything, to the rats (and sometimes humans) who scavenge for trash, to the seagulls squawking overhead near the grimy water. It's a place that's disgusting, but for the characters it's ultimately home.
The socio-political elements are also at play, from the diverse array of European immigrants (plus African Americans, who are the most segregated and have the worst jobs), to the proliferation of Labor concerns. Marta's older brother, Noah, and his friends are continually trying to hook up with organizers on "the main land" in attempts to force humane working conditions on their island's factory. I've been reading a lot of books lately about how American Jews brushed up against socialism and communism in the early 20th century, and this one gives a very comprehensive depiction. Meanwhile, the Great Depression is raging, but the island's isolated conditions (everyone who lives there works in the factory and people grow their own food in gardens) keep many residents out of dire poverty. From there, of course, we move to Hitler's rise to power, and the fruitless attempts of the Eisenstein family to liase with HIAS to get their remaining relatives out of Europe.
I have to be spoilery to make this connection, but in a way the fate of Barren Shoal mirrors the fate of European Jews. They fought for survival, for recognition against an indifferent-to-cruel system, and were ultimately displaced (at least not murdered, of course, for where similarities diverge.) Marta reigns down a lot of opinions from the future (with amusing, old lady "if you will excuse me" asides) about corruption, the dark side of human nature and the dangers of ideology. (She's not a character who connects with the religious side of Judaism so much. :P) It's not necessarily a bleak book, but it justifiably has the feel of an old woman taking a look at her, and the world's, tumultuous past, and passing judgement.
Still, to a degree, this first person, retrospective narration works against the book. I dunno, maybe I'm too soon off of FAHRENHEIT 451 to be forgiving of lectures. Marta's prevalent opinions, plus her embellishments about future events, can take away from the drive of the story in the "here and now" of the main action. Maybe it adds more texture to American history, but it also narrows the characters and situations around Marta in the past. (For example, why does Marta only have one friend? Am I being too nitpicky?) I got the feeling of the story being glossed over and simplified a little bit, which makes sense because Marta is looking back from across decades. But if Zoref were to tell this story in third person, without any time jumps, perhaps it would be more complex and less moralistic. I know that's personal taste to a degree (I almost always prefer third person) but I've also tried to apply that advice specifically to this book.
But overall I liked the characters and think that Zoref provided a unique perspective into American life and history. I can see why this book got the buzz. :P So kudos!
March 1, 2020
I knew when I read an excerpt that I probably wouldn't like this book, an when it was picked for a book club, I did object. I borrowed a kindle so I wouldn't have to buy the book. My first comment is, the book is called Barren Island, yet the book takes place on he island next to it, Barren shoals. There is a factory that tends horses into glue, so the place stinks. The families at least have homes and gardens, and can fish, so they have during the depression. We see history unfold through the eyes of the narrator, Marta a Jewish girl on the island, from her 80 year old self. There is a hero in this story, the teacher who lives on the island during the week and manages to teach well enough to get 2 of the girls into Hunter College. From the depression through the Spanish civil war and world war 2, Marta sees it all. The most interesting parts were the labor unions and what a horrible part Robert Moses played in evicting people seemingly without a care to get his vision of New York.
February 2, 2021
A Stench Grows in Brooklyn
A coming of age story set on a remote and neglected island off the coast of Brooklyn, where the city's dead animals are shipped to be "processed". Some novels have a strong sense of place, this is the first I've read that had a sense of smell. The early chapters are imbued with a vague aura of claustrophobia and disgust. As the novel progresses it opens up to to take on larger social issues, related to the seismic and horrifying changes taking place in the world during the 1930s. A bit dark though I liked it very much.
A coming of age story set on a remote and neglected island off the coast of Brooklyn, where the city's dead animals are shipped to be "processed". Some novels have a strong sense of place, this is the first I've read that had a sense of smell. The early chapters are imbued with a vague aura of claustrophobia and disgust. As the novel progresses it opens up to to take on larger social issues, related to the seismic and horrifying changes taking place in the world during the 1930s. A bit dark though I liked it very much.
January 18, 2019
I chose this book as it was centered on a piece of NYC and immigrant history that i had never heard of. I enjoyed this book very much although it was shocking in the life it described and depressing in the misery of the lives on Barren Shoal. The story is full of thought provoking asides from the mature Marta and observations of the characters, intellects and morality of the people with whom she grew up.
The narrator Marta Eisenstein at 80 tells the story of her younger self living on what was essentially a sandbar in Jamaica Bay off the coast of Brooklyn. Robert Moses (who comes in for much undoubtedly deserved criticism in this book) ultimately caused this shoal and the miserable life on it to disappear. Ever present throughout the story is the repulsive smell permeating the air, the lives and the human bodies themselves stemming from the sole business on the shoal--a massive rendering plant turning dead animals and maybe parts of humans into glue. We are given a full view of the barges bringing maggot infested dead horses, dogs and who knows what else to the island to be butchered and thrown into the fire. The barges are also occupied by scavenging people so desperate to stay alive that they cut off chunks of the dead animals to eat.
This is not a typical story of upward mobility among immigrants- rather these people have nothing- even their homes are owned by the company. They seem to have no dreams of a different life and many of them never leave the shoal- while others can only ride on the blood and guts infused barges. The book also delves into the desire of several young people to seek unionization only to see that nobody in the outside world really cares about them. Marta's family tries to arrange passage for several family members stuck in Hitler occupied eastern Europe to no avail.
This book reminded me a great deal of Elena Ferrante's trilogy. It is about day to day life where sometimes small thins happen but mostly they don't.
The narrator Marta Eisenstein at 80 tells the story of her younger self living on what was essentially a sandbar in Jamaica Bay off the coast of Brooklyn. Robert Moses (who comes in for much undoubtedly deserved criticism in this book) ultimately caused this shoal and the miserable life on it to disappear. Ever present throughout the story is the repulsive smell permeating the air, the lives and the human bodies themselves stemming from the sole business on the shoal--a massive rendering plant turning dead animals and maybe parts of humans into glue. We are given a full view of the barges bringing maggot infested dead horses, dogs and who knows what else to the island to be butchered and thrown into the fire. The barges are also occupied by scavenging people so desperate to stay alive that they cut off chunks of the dead animals to eat.
This is not a typical story of upward mobility among immigrants- rather these people have nothing- even their homes are owned by the company. They seem to have no dreams of a different life and many of them never leave the shoal- while others can only ride on the blood and guts infused barges. The book also delves into the desire of several young people to seek unionization only to see that nobody in the outside world really cares about them. Marta's family tries to arrange passage for several family members stuck in Hitler occupied eastern Europe to no avail.
This book reminded me a great deal of Elena Ferrante's trilogy. It is about day to day life where sometimes small thins happen but mostly they don't.
January 1, 2018
As depressing, yet compelling, as it gets.
Historically I am not that far from the Great Depression. After all, my parents were children during that awful time so reading about/imagining an era in which they lived does not seem as far away as, say, imagining life in Colonial America. Yet my own childhood in the 60s and 70s was so different from theirs (as my kids’ in the 90s and 00s was from mine) that reading about the era does conjure up what amounts to a feeling of “ancient history”. Yet, our current fears for the present and the future - are they that much different from those who inhabited Barren Shoal? The current events and fears for the future that frightened and motivated Marta and her family and friends in their time were as rough as the Cold War, the 60s and Vietnam War were for us in my time and Trumpism, terrorism, and North Korea is today. The difference, in this book, was how the shear immediacy of it all was brought home. During the Great Depression, unemployment was something like 25% for long periods of time - today we can barely fathom it! Starvation and poverty as an everyday occurrence, looming war in Europe (which could just as easily have hit America’s shores), the ever-present and hideous antisemitism both near and afar and, yes, the possibility of a revolution in our own backyard was all too real. Marta’s world sustained tragedies that occur throughout history that are no more or less tragic for those who experience them at any point in time. And Marta was able to point out that even with the indignities, health issues, physical and emotional dangers and yes, the SMELL, the families of Barren Shoal in their time had it better than many - not good but better - and most (but not all). survived to live a better day.
Definitely not a light read nor for the faint of heart but fascinating and worth the time and effort.
Historically I am not that far from the Great Depression. After all, my parents were children during that awful time so reading about/imagining an era in which they lived does not seem as far away as, say, imagining life in Colonial America. Yet my own childhood in the 60s and 70s was so different from theirs (as my kids’ in the 90s and 00s was from mine) that reading about the era does conjure up what amounts to a feeling of “ancient history”. Yet, our current fears for the present and the future - are they that much different from those who inhabited Barren Shoal? The current events and fears for the future that frightened and motivated Marta and her family and friends in their time were as rough as the Cold War, the 60s and Vietnam War were for us in my time and Trumpism, terrorism, and North Korea is today. The difference, in this book, was how the shear immediacy of it all was brought home. During the Great Depression, unemployment was something like 25% for long periods of time - today we can barely fathom it! Starvation and poverty as an everyday occurrence, looming war in Europe (which could just as easily have hit America’s shores), the ever-present and hideous antisemitism both near and afar and, yes, the possibility of a revolution in our own backyard was all too real. Marta’s world sustained tragedies that occur throughout history that are no more or less tragic for those who experience them at any point in time. And Marta was able to point out that even with the indignities, health issues, physical and emotional dangers and yes, the SMELL, the families of Barren Shoal in their time had it better than many - not good but better - and most (but not all). survived to live a better day.
Definitely not a light read nor for the faint of heart but fascinating and worth the time and effort.
December 31, 2018
This was very good! It's a character driven slice of life as told by Marta who is now 80 years old, and she tells of her teenage years on Barren Shoal. It focuses on immigrant life, factory work, poverty, gentrification. I liked the ending the best, when Nazism was coming to the US and immigrant families had to try to save those back in Europe.
April 30, 2017
Here's a feat of storytelling that's also a primer in how to be truthful and compassionate. Unflinching, driven, full of compelling characters who live far beyond the last page of the book--BARREN ISLAND. Zoref's novel took my breath away.
November 10, 2017
"Barren Island" is a much under publicized book that was recently nominated to the Long list for the 2017 National Book Awards competition. It is a story of the immigrant families of an island in Brooklyn that was once a rendering plant for the dead animals of New York City. It takes place in the time between the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the start of the Second World War in the early 1940's. The narrator is an eighty year old Jewish woman who grew up on the fictional Barren Shoal, another impoverished factory island nearby in Jamaica Bay. Reminiscent of Upton Sinclair's, "The Jungle" and Emile Zola's, "Germinal", with elements of John Steinbeck's, "Grapes of Wrath", included, the reader can see that it is not your typical "coming of age" novel (thank goodness). It is a compelling and well written story that examines the life of new immigrants, the Depression, the rise of the Unions and their subsequent problems and the Jewish question, both in Europe and America, as the Second World War approached. Really, the book has two directions- a character study of the disparate immigrant families (Jewish, Greek and Italian) and a historical novel covering this problematic time in American history. In the second half of the book, we do lose the personal story of our protagonist to the historical aspects of the novel, which, to me, was slightly annoying. Zoref's prose is descriptive and lyrical, evoking many emotions as you read through the book. Graphic and gritty, it is a debut that is quite phenomenal and I wonder why it is not more widely known. It was published by a small University press (Western Michigan University) but I hope that with the NBA nomination, its fame will spread. An excellent read.
May 23, 2018
With Carol Zoref's Barren Island, be glad that books don't come in Smell-O-Vision. If they did, you wouldn't want to even attempt to crack open this book that mainly takes place on Barren Shoal, where the carcasses of dead horses were rendered for glue and grease. (This was a real place.) The awful smell is often evoked in how truly awful it was. But then you wouldn't get to discover this lovely read that tells of an oft-told time in a largely forgotten place. At 80, Marta Eisenstein Lane recalls her childhood growing up on Barren Shoal, the smaller, unheralded neighbor of Barren Island in Jamaica Bay. Marta is the middle child of newly arrived Eastern European immigrants. Barren Shoal provided steady employment for her father, especially during the Depression, a small house and community, made up of other newly arrived families. The Jews with the Greeks with the Italians with the Irish. But being as separated from the rest of Brooklyn, let alone the world, that community becomes their de facto world. Some people hardly ever leave Barren Shoal, if even at all. They all look out for each other how they can. But it is a work environment as much as it is their home. Marta recollects her childhood, hardly idyllic, but idyllic nonetheless for what it was. Marta grows up, goes from a girl to a young woman during a very tumultuous time, the Depression giving way to the horrors happening in Europe, how the domestic mixes with the worldly, and how it shapes Marta irrevocably. A family tragedy, political awakening, and personal and moral reckonings all make Marta. Zoref gives full voice to Marta, letting her memories shape a character, letting her be the girl she once was, but not forgetting the woman she became, from where she came. "Barren Shoal" should have been the title, but "Barren Island" is the more apt, but ironic, choice. There's nothing barren about it.
June 4, 2018
This book caught my attention at the library since it was on the "new arrivals" shelf and it was Longlisted for the National Book Award. This is basically a coming of age story for Marta Eisenstein, but told from the perspective of her 80-year old self. She also gives us much detail about the coming of age stories of her brother Noah, and neightbors on Barren Shoal - a small island that turns dead horses and animals into glue, etc.
I didn't love every part of this book, it was a bit long winded and perhaps a bit over written at times, but I really did enjoy the complexity that these small, seemingly unimportant lives had to each other and the importance of one person on an island so small. There isn't a large amount of action, it's sort of a slow moving tragedy. How the death of one person can impact a family so deeply and the community around them. And how that community comes together in times of need. There were also some very graphic scenes with rats and people scavenging the dead animal corpses for food to survive.
Marta grew up, her brother and his friends tried to get the union to care about their small island, but they never did. She had her pride wounded by one man and married another. Though the focus of her story was the time that her home address was on Barren Shoal. She was off the Island and into the city for many larger incidents that happened. There was a much larger political shadow about treatment of Jews, workers and unions, homosexuality, and of course WWII. I didn't realize that this was a WWII book-ish.
I would recommend it if you like serious, slow moving plots. I like it, but it did take a while to finish and it was so long but I don't have very much to say about it.
I didn't love every part of this book, it was a bit long winded and perhaps a bit over written at times, but I really did enjoy the complexity that these small, seemingly unimportant lives had to each other and the importance of one person on an island so small. There isn't a large amount of action, it's sort of a slow moving tragedy. How the death of one person can impact a family so deeply and the community around them. And how that community comes together in times of need. There were also some very graphic scenes with rats and people scavenging the dead animal corpses for food to survive.
Marta grew up, her brother and his friends tried to get the union to care about their small island, but they never did. She had her pride wounded by one man and married another. Though the focus of her story was the time that her home address was on Barren Shoal. She was off the Island and into the city for many larger incidents that happened. There was a much larger political shadow about treatment of Jews, workers and unions, homosexuality, and of course WWII. I didn't realize that this was a WWII book-ish.
I would recommend it if you like serious, slow moving plots. I like it, but it did take a while to finish and it was so long but I don't have very much to say about it.
November 1, 2017
A fascinating, well-research micro-history that focuses on the lives of immigrants that lived on a forsaken island off the shores of New York during the Great Depression. The residents of Barren Shoal (largely ignored and forgotten by historians) were a diverse group of Italians, Greeks, African Americans, and Jewish people. The island was home to a plant that received dead horses and burned them in the furnaces day and night to produce glue. The island´s daily activities were set against the backdrop of a horrid stench and scavengers, people at the absolute lowest of New York´s social totem pole at the time, who searched through the dead horses being sent to the factories for any scrap of food. Despite the misery of the smell and their precarious lives depending on the mens´ jobs in the glue factory, the people on the island studied together, ate food together, gardened, shared in tragedies and triumphs, learning about each others´ cultures and coexisted in this forgotten island. Reminiscent of Upton Sinclair´s The Jungle, (mentioned in the book by young aspiring union members) reminds us of the horrid working conditions at the turn of the 20th century, the control that companies had over their workers, the fear immigrants had of losing their jobs, their families holding together by a thread, and the utmost importance of the accomplishments of labor movements. Excellent read if you enjoy social histories, books about little known places, social justice or character studies.
September 15, 2020
This is a brilliant gem of a book. Unknown by most New Yorkers, both then and now, Barren Island was a sliver of swampy land located in Jamaica Bay off the coast of Brooklyn, NY. Used as a dumping ground for New York City's rotting garbage and dead animals, the tiny island's only source of income for its few inhabitants was in rendering carcasses for industrial use. From the 1850s until their forced evacuation in 1936, a small group of poor black Americans and Jewish, Greek, Italian, and Irish immigrants made Barren Island their home. They worked hard to carve out new lives and raise their families in an inhospitable place where the stench of burning flesh was ever present. Zoref's impeccable research gives us descriptions so sharp and poignant that you will find yourself totally immersed in the daily struggles of these resilient settlers as they joined together to fight for the right to build a real community. I wait with anticipation Zoref's next book.
smallforgotten people from this now vanished this all but forgotten time and place, Aisland's people, who endured the stench of burning flesh, in order to that all but forgotten place that finally vanished.
the scent of burning flash ever present.
da cimmunity
never far away from the stench of burning animal flesh. This diverse group struggled together to raise their families and build a community.
smallforgotten people from this now vanished this all but forgotten time and place, Aisland's people, who endured the stench of burning flesh, in order to that all but forgotten place that finally vanished.
the scent of burning flash ever present.
da cimmunity
never far away from the stench of burning animal flesh. This diverse group struggled together to raise their families and build a community.
April 24, 2018
Did you know that there used to be a sand bar right off the coast of Brooklyn, where New Yorkers would send animal carcasses and other waste to be turned into glue? This is the mostly-forgotten tale of Barren Island (or in this case, the fictional tale of Barren Shoal which was next to Barren Island), where a group of immigrant families lived and worked. The novel is written in the form of a memoir of Marta Eisenstein, born to Eastern European Jewish immigrants. The author constructed a vivid world on Barren Shoal, where despite the horrific smells, the families living there created community, however isolated they were from the rest of the world. Woven through the day to day world of Barren Shoal were the events occurring concurrently in New York (the rise of communism and the labor movement) and the rest of the world (the Spanish Civil War and the rise of the Nazis). The current events became a bit too much like a history lecture in the latter half of the novel, but overall, I really enjoyed this novel.
April 15, 2018
This is a story about poor immigrant families who lived in a place called Barren Shoals... an island off Brooklyn, similar to the real-life Barren Island. Barren Island was home to a foul smelling factory that made glue from the discarded carcasses of horses, etc. A community centered around the factory as seen through the eyes of Marta. The description of the horrible working conditions and the stench made for tough reading. The depression, the rise of unions, strikes and WWII all serve s the back drop for the story of familes making it through hard times. In the end like many other poor communities in New York, Robert Moses, ultimately evicted everyone, closed the factory and filled everything in... so it became the site of Floyd Bennett Field, New York's first municipal airport. Apparently today as the soil erodes, remnants of those familes and there possessions continue to be unearthed. Interesting historically-based read
November 2, 2019
this is an intriguing story written in an engaging style, offering an unusual perspective on the 1930s depression and second world war. the perspective of a young girl born into and growing up in one of society's hidden places is, despite the smell, very refreshing. the story touches on many themes including capitalism, poverty, homosexuality, unionisation, religion, feminism and war as well as the universal coming-of-age story; how we learn from our environment and those around us, and how children understand and interpret the adult world from the glimpses that they catch. the story is narrated by the protagonist at 80 years old, looking back at her childhood; this framing at times felt superfluous, it didn't add a lot to the story and it felt rather perfunctory at the end with a very swift tying up of (most) loose ends. however it did not detract from it being an enjoyable and informative read.
July 25, 2021
This was a recommendation from a friend who suggested this book after I convinced him to read my book "Dead Horse Bay." Barren Island and Dead Horse Bay are geographically next to each other, so there is a common geographical setting but I soon discovered that this is a much more serious book.
Barren Island isn't so much fiction as the remembered childhood of a woman (Marta) who grew up in the depression on the tiny island called Barren Shoal. The island was a garbage dump for New York City and mostly a place where the city's dead horses were incinerated
The childhood is remembered in great detail and is told in first person. It's a pretty depressing story and little (if anything) turns out well. Still, the author and some of her family survived and she was able to write her story at age 80. This is a pretty amazing achievement for an author who went to work in a garment factory after school and did not g to college.
Barren Island isn't so much fiction as the remembered childhood of a woman (Marta) who grew up in the depression on the tiny island called Barren Shoal. The island was a garbage dump for New York City and mostly a place where the city's dead horses were incinerated
The childhood is remembered in great detail and is told in first person. It's a pretty depressing story and little (if anything) turns out well. Still, the author and some of her family survived and she was able to write her story at age 80. This is a pretty amazing achievement for an author who went to work in a garment factory after school and did not g to college.
January 29, 2018
Barren Shoal is place that has disappeared according to the narrator , Marta of the coming of age novel Barren Island. It exists only in the memory of those who lived and grew up there in the 1930s. A place that smelled so bad, it was an island off of Jamaica Bay where horses and other animals were rendered; what we called a glue factory. This was a novel of the people who lived there between two world wars, during the depression. Told through the eyes of an impressionable, but world weary pre adolescent, we learn about hidden homosexuality(her brother Noah), labor unions, the rendering factory on the island, ethnic groups striving together and the growing monsters in Europe and Asia. A worthwhile novel of a place that has disappeared, like all of our childhoods. The narrator is 80 years old during the telling of the story.
April 14, 2020
It will be hard to forget Barren Shoals - the stench of burning horse carcasses, the work of the men in the glue factory, and the scavengers who feed themselves off the garbage. Despite this horrible life, Marta loves Barren Shoals for the schoolhouse, the beach combing and the community she embraces. Ms. Zoref employs a memoir style to great effect, as Marta describes her childhood with the wry observations of her present, 80 year old self.
I liked this book- the characters were authentic and the history was fascinating, especially about the unions, which I did not know much about.
I liked this book- the characters were authentic and the history was fascinating, especially about the unions, which I did not know much about.
October 26, 2017
Carol Zoref has written this epistolary novel with tremendous voice. To whom the novel is speaking, I will leave for the reader to discover. As good a novel about the depression and its challenges as I have read in more than a decade.
I have recommended this novel for the local ladies book club.
I have recommended this novel for the local ladies book club.
December 31, 2017
I'd recommend to those who want a very well written look into an immigrant community in the early 1900s living lives of extreme poverty in dire conditions. And yet, there is hope and joy and laughter and all those things that make life wonderful.
Although it is significantly different, parts remind me of the stories I've heard from my North Carolina cotton mill family history.
Although it is significantly different, parts remind me of the stories I've heard from my North Carolina cotton mill family history.
April 23, 2018
I was really skeptical about this book and it took me a while to get into it, but once I did I couldn't put it down. The writing itself is merely serviceable, but I was really drawn in by the main character. It's not a very plotty novel, but Marta is so engaging that you won't mind spending a few hours reading about her life, especially if you are interested in 1930s Jewish history.
November 13, 2020
i was personally interested because of my connection with Brooklyn and the times I've spent along the shore beneath the Marine Parkway Bridge, on the Brooklyn side. I was captured by the content, but not the writing. Something about Zoref's style kept me from feeling for Marta, the teller of this faux memoir. The tale is rich with historic allusions that I found enjoyable to revisit.
February 7, 2018
This was published by Western Michigan Univ and nominated to the National Book Award longlist. I encourage everyone to read it. I thought this book was incredible. It lost a bit of steam towards the end but I often get that impression from books. I would have kept reading
September 10, 2018
I’m rounding up a bit. 3.5
There was a lot to enjoy in this novel, including how completely the author created this world. That being said, the writing was a bit lacking. The directness worked for the narrator, however I wish it had been a bit more creatively descriptive.
There was a lot to enjoy in this novel, including how completely the author created this world. That being said, the writing was a bit lacking. The directness worked for the narrator, however I wish it had been a bit more creatively descriptive.
September 23, 2018
Reading all nominated for awards books atm - Barren Island I found very interesting. Well written, I could almost smell the stench of the decaying horses and other carcasses sent to the place where the immigrant families eke out a living. Fascinating stuff.
October 7, 2017
My review of Barren Island can be found on Storify:
https://storify.com/Mondy74/barren-is...
https://storify.com/Mondy74/barren-is...
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