Through a Broken Window

by Gary Turchin

“THIS IS A TERRIFIC NOVEL! It puts you inside living breathing characters you care about, who do things you wish they wouldn't, and whom you follow with bated breath to see how they'll get out of this." Tamim Ansary, author of “West of Kabul, East of New York,” and “The Invention of Yesterday. ”Through A Broken Window” is the coming of age saga of 12-year-old Jerry Epstein, set on the sandlot baseball fields and in the delis and diners of small town, 1964 New Jersey. Much of it takes place in Jerry’s dad’s luncheonette, in the mob-infested hamlet of East Orange. This is the era before McDonald’s and other franchises sprouted like weeds, wiping out many of the mom and pop greasy spoons that immigrant families relied on for their livelihoods. That’s how the Epstein clan found themselves in the middle of a hamburger turf war with Nicoletti, a wannabe mobster, whose “Made” daddy bought him his own hamburger franchise, to keep him out of trouble and out of a life of organized crime. But Nicoletti only knows trouble. And soon finds it by opening his Hamburger Heaven joint across the street from the Epstein’s little All Right Coffee Shop, threatening their livelihood. Our ambitious young Jerry has big plans for his life and doesn’t appreciate that it can all be taken away from him and his family by this scary man, just like that. One afternoon, while working at the store, Jerry’s dad sends him to the market to buy some lemons. On the walk there, Jerry passes Nicoletti’s Hamburger Heaven place, still under construction, and is taunted and teased by a brutish Nicoletti. Jerry’s response was to hurl a piece of brick at Nicoletti, who was standing behind a large plate glass window. As the window shattered, so did the safety and security of Jerry and his entire clan. Their lives were now in the cross-hairs of a dark, dangerous and unpredictable man. Meanwhile, always brewing at the heart of the story is a fast pitch softball tournament between long-rivaled schools in Linden, NJ (another mob-infested little town). Old rivalries are stoked, and new ones are made in almost every tension-filled inning. Poor Jerry, one day he’s the strong-armed starting shortstop, the next, to no fault of his own, he’s left out of the lineup in the biggest, most important game of his young life. How does Jerry handle his disappointment? And how does his team handle it when, though it's billed a softball tournament, one rival team insists on playing hardball.

282 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 7, 2020

Reviews

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I am not a boy and did not grow up with baseball, I really appreciated this book and the stories about race relations and growing up in New Jersey that this book revealed. I really think this would be a great novel for middle grade students to read and discuss-- not sure if it was supposed to be or not, but the central problem and the working through it all would hold the interest of that age group, I think.

[Deborah Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Storytelling like its supposed to be- a page turner of a book. Characters you care about, which keeps you in the evolving story. One of those books I looked forward to reading each night.

[Best Indie Book Award · Rating 5 out of 5]

🏆 2020 BIBA® Mainstream Winner!

[David Gripton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice Read

Interesting story line. Having grown up back east in the 60's, there were lots of similarities to what I remember from my youth.

[Dave Holt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The baseball writing is terrific. I could have enjoyed more of it but I was a Little Leaguer once. The narrator is Jerry Epstein, a 6th grader and baseball devotee, playing catcher and shortstop for his school’s team. Jerry’s voice and persona are engaging, personable, and authentic and this makes him an effective narrative voice. The family all work at his father’s “All-Right Coffee Shop,” a mom and pop business in East Orange, New Jersey. There’s a fun scene with a black family of house painters who also play great blues music. But when the local Mafia comes into the neighborhood to help one of their own and to crush Dad’s business, this conflict takes center stage in the story and the good times seem to be at an end. The affectionate relationship between Jerry and his older brother Daniel makes for many moments of brotherly good feeling, warmth that offsets the cruelty of the father which struck me at times as overplayed, and even quite disturbing. Jerry eventually is driven by his father’s mean streak to knee him in the belly, which might be why Dad had softened towards his boys by the time we reach the epilogue. At championship game #2, the two main threads of Mafioso conflict and baseball competition with rival schools weave together especially effectively as we near the climactic end. But Jerry and his family get a second chance at a happy ending. You’ll enjoy this good old small town 1960’s story with all its East Coast charms and frightening dangers.