Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue

by Mark Kurlansky

It’s the boom years of the 1980s, and life is closing in on Nathan Seltzer, who rarely travels beyond his suddenly gentrifying Lower East Side neighborhood in New York City. Between paralyzing bouts of claustrophobia, Nathan wonders whether he should cheat on his wife with Karoline, a German pastry maker whose parents may or may not have been Nazis. His father, Harry, is plotting with the 1960s boogaloo star Chow Mein Vega for the comeback of this dance craze. Meanwhile, a homicidal drug addict is terrorizing the neighborhood.
With its cast of unforgettable characters, Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue is a comedy of cultures, of the old and the new. It’s about struggling to hold on to life in a rapidly changing world, about food and sex, and about how our lives are shaped by love and guilt.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, New York, Audiobook

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2005

About the author

Mark Kurlansky is an American journalist and author who has written a number of books of fiction and nonfiction. His 1997 book, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1997), was an international bestseller and was translated into more than fifteen languages. His book Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (2006) was the nonfiction winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boogaloo attracted me almost solely based on its title. Then I peeked at the blurb and discovered it took place in the East Village during the late 80's. The first 75 pages or so drag the hell on as they introduce an assload of characters that live in the neighborhood and therefore make up the fabric of the book. The main character is a more-or-less lapsed Jew named Nathan that owns a small copy shop and is having a semi-midlife crisis. The book picks up after everyone is introduced and they start to interact. It's a quirky lil book that keeps you reading because every character could be someone you lived next door to at some point in your life.

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was immersed in the story, not so much for the writing but rather the stories of the characters and the neighborhood as a whole. I felt like I was a bystander witnessing the developments of the Lower East Side of New York.

The reason I am not rating the book higher is because while I did find the premise and plot interesting, the narration and overall presentation wasn't that engaging to me. I did appreciate the details that come in scenes regarding food though.

I think I'd recommend this to someone looking for a "slice of life" type of read, especially specific to New York.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent story about a NYC neighborhood and the characters that inhabit it.

The thing w/ this book is you don't feel like you're reading the author's story, but the neighborhood's and its people's.

[Sophia Tseng · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've recently made a few wonderful trips to New York City, so was excited to find this book about gentrification in 1980’s NYC in the neighborhood book box. To be sure, it is an amusing read, and I learned much about the distinctions between various Latinx ethnicities, and how they stereotype and discriminate against each other. This book is written about a more carefree time when some landlords were much more relaxed about whether or not their tenants even paid rent.

Despite the overall silly tone of the book that was hard to take seriously (and sometimes hard to read if I wasn't in the mood), there are some biting observations about humanity that will make you stop and ponder. It is a portrait of one young father’s desire to go outside the bounds of his marriage and indulge in someone forbidden (non Jewish, and possibly the descendant of a nazi). The claim of this book is that the fact that the woman is forbidden is what makes their relationship and their time together so desirable to him.

Another nugget of wisdom that made me stop short— when it is revealed that there are no prior nazi’s in the neighborhood, but that by being German and in Berlin at the time, he still held some personal responsibility.

“Victor Stein was my oldest friend," said Moellen. "We grew up together. He and his wife and two children lived in our building. They took away his job. Then they made him leave our building, Then they took them all away."
"And killed them" said Karoline's mother
"And killed them" Moellen confirmed.
"What does that have to do with you?" said Karoline.
"Exactly" said Moellen. "That is what I said, too. Why should I do anything? So my oldest friend and his family are robbed and murdered. What does this have to do with me?"

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure I would have approached this were it not for admiration for Kurlansky's non-fiction food/historical writing, but this is a charming novel with intriguing characters.

Set in the just pre-gentrification East Village of the 1980s, the narrative gets most of its color from the contrasting ethnicities: still quite observant Jews who emigrated in the early 20th century, Puerto Ricans, Italian bakery owners and cops who don't live in the neighborhood etc. Also, the small business owner vs drug dealer symbiosis is prominent as is the looming gentrification, expressed by outside chains wanting to buy out the local businesses and the wave of newcomers willing to pay what seems like astronomical rents.

The story itself could be set in other milieux; a man in his 30s of no great ambition with an appealing wife and precocious young child, from a somewhat obsessively tight-knit family of Holocaust survivors, is briefly distracted by an old flame.

[Dora Truong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boogaloo on Second Avenue by Mark Kurlansky
At first I thought this would just be a fun read and it was, but so much more. Talk about a melting pot, this one melted and morphed, fused and fomented. The eighties weren't good times for NYC yet what a rich family life the Seltzers had. We should all live in such an interesting place with so much family around us and fascinating neighbors. Yet what secrets everyone carried and of course pain. The surprises were great, as was the humor and pathos. LOVED IT!!!

[Cj · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a little chaotic narration wise, but I think the reason it’s done in this way is because there are so many different walks of life that that kurlansky writes about, it sort of adds to the flavor of the book. Overall, I really enjoyed reading it, but sometimes the narration came off as a bit jarring.

[Christine Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat book - very different. Interesting look at life in this part of NY. Great characters, interesting ending. And very human. I really enjoyed it, funny in parts although its a description of a raw kind of life, and cleverly told.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up to three, because it’s interesting but definitely drags. Some of the character arcs are so short lived it left me wondering why some were included at all, though perhaps that’s the point?

[Dana Nucera · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audio Book: Sorry, just not my type of storytelling. I could not finish it. I can't say if it was good or bad because it was just so far from the style of writing that I am drawn too.

[Jennifer Bowden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the quirky characters, all of which were well developed and likeable. The author's intricate knowledge of neighbourhoods like this one just made the book.

[Ulrika Mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone borrowed this book from me. I want it back.
It is epic and will have you craving for lots of foods and other worldly delights.

[marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for the characters. And the humor I didn’t know Mark had in him Have read all his books

[Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the 1980's , the story follows the everyday lives of a divergent group of residents in a neighborhood of NYC's Lower East Side. Populated by Jewish immigrants from Germany, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Italians and a few urban pioneers riding the first wave of gentrification, the daily lives are much the same for each group. All are aspiring to make a better life and feel others are hindering them. Chow Mein Vega, a former boogaloo star continues to perform. Felix, a former Dominican drug dealer tries to pass as a Puerto Rican because they are citizens and then he can become a successful tomato merchant. But before the story's end, he has switched nationalities again, having studied Italian and falling in love with an Italian woman. Humorous comedy of cultures showing how each group though coming with different customs, are basically the same. Fitting considering all the immigration issues facing America today.\\

[Alex Goodison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1980’s, Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue upon first encounter seems like your stereotypical “ethnic” story - You have your immigrant Germans, Jews, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans pretending to be Puerto Ricans and those who desperately want the neighbourhood to be ‘up-and-coming’ – and In reality that’s pretty much the whole story. Not much more to it. But it’s these overemphasized stereotypes that makes the book so quirky and warm. I found the beginning slightly slow because the whole time was spent explaining each character in depth, but later I realized that this was vital to the story as it made me feel like I knew each person. Every character became so real, so much so that i could imagine them being my neighbours and acquaintances. Is it a literary master piece? No. But it is a fun read.

[Bayneeta · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book my mother would have described as "too ethnic." Late eighties in the lower East side of New York. Jews, Germans, and Puerto Ricans (and Dominicans trying to pass as Puerto Ricans), and yuppies hoping to see the neighborhood become upwardly mobile are just a few of the groups living in the community. Nathan is married and the father of a precocious young daughter, but is obsessed with the daughter of the local German baker (was he a Nazi?)who always smells enticingly of butter. Sex and recipes ensue. Lots going on in this novel, but I never got hooked. Audio version read by George Guidall.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed to see Kurlansky fall on his face in a first fiction fumble. It's a good subject, though. A diverse community of Jews, Italians, Hispanics, white Yuppies and the rich Asians, all resisting each other, and living together in the 1980s Lower East Side. There are some memorable moments of history within, but all in all, It's a most confusing novelization. Worth reading once, just to glean the highlights of the time.

[Jenshaines · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful glimpse into the messy neighborhoods of NYC in the 80s. I KNEW these characters growing up. It's great fun, if not very deep. Kurlansky draws us in with a collection of colorful characters and a lot of wink wink jokes for those in the know of that time and place. He tries to add in a dark secret at the end, and I think that part falls very flat - take it for what it's worth, which is FUN.

[Krista · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I made it to Chapter 7, 8 maybe. Ok, Mark. I get it...it's a neighborhood full of Jews, Latinos, etc. You don't have to tell us in EVERY chapter that these characters are Jewish...then the next chapter they are Latino, Italian, whatever. It's a bit overloaded with ethnic references, as if he didn't think the reader could figure that out by themselves. Maybe the author did this because he had soooooooo many characters! I found this book, what little I read of it, to be EXHAUSTING.

[Roman Sonnleitner · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read - sure, you can clearly see (in plot development & language) that Kurlansky is not a ficiton writer, and the best-written passages are the cooking scenes (the author's literary roots showing there...) - but it's a fun story, mostly likeable characters & interesting setting; not bad at all for a first novel.

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll never know personally what New York, and in particular the Lower East Side, was like in the late 1980s, so I found this book interesting in how it conveyed this time and place. The motley cast of characters could get a bit exhausting, although that's a fairly accurate representation of New York.

[veronica]

I got this from the library and enjoyed what I read of it, but drifted away from it. Keep meaning to check it out again to read the rest. But it was just what I wanted: a novel with a food-related bent.

[Egm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Listened to this book on tape and just found it completely uncompelling. Did not keep my attention at all and thought about not even finishing it. Didn't feel for or care about the characters or the story at all.

[Adam Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often entertaining, but bogs down in too many characters. Picked it up because I grew up in same area in which the book takes place. I wonder if it's more or less interesting if you don't know the neighborhood well.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was hilarious!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick, witty read.

[Rosamund · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clever, sometimes witty play on ethnic stereotypes in in New York. However there were too many characters so I got confused, and really... there was no plot.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this but it was shallow with unlikable characters. The recipe for Rigo Jancsi and the passages involving cooking are the saving graces.

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a super fun book to listen to. I learned lots about NYC and jewish food.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the audio book version on a trip out to the mountains back in 2005 and greatly enjoyed this debut novel by Kurlansky (author of the nonfiction works 'Cod' and 'Salt').