Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue: A Novel of Pastry, Guilt and Music Book

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.

Library Journal

After spending many years as a journalist covering international affairs, Kurlansky (Salt: A World History) has made a sharp change of direction. He has not only written a novel, but he has also anchored it around a character so provincial he rarely leaves his East Village neighborhood and has never lived in a building separate from his parents. While the book convincingly conveys Nathan Seltzer's thought process as he experiences a midlife crisis, the novel is perhaps more interesting as a social and cultural commentary on gentrification in lower Manhattan in the 1980s and how longtime residents dealt with swift upheaval. Furthermore, Kurlansky's sophisticated commentary charms the reader to empathize with the characters while still smiling at their ethnic quirks and prejudices. Kurlansky depicts the plight of these residents in a serious fashion but also stresses their experiences as immigrants and how their quirks help them persevere when confronted with change. Someone with an indifferent attitude toward ethnic cuisine and its history may be turned off by the generous use of food imagery, but this still shouldn't take away from the story's fun. Recommended for most collections but especially in the New York metropolitan area. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/04.]-Kevin Greczek, Ewing, NJ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.