Reviews for Union Square

The average rating for Union Square based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-03-16 00:00:00 Shellina Rush I got this book from Rick Prelinger, who knows I love old, forgotten novels. This was a lovely one, without much plot, but with wonderful characters and vivid, chewy writing. It focuses on a set of characters living around Union Square after the crash of 29, in the early years of the Great Depression. Many of the characters are young communists, idealizing the Russian revolution, imagining themselves as sturdy peasants. But there are others: the cynical former poet now in the throes of alcohol, the young intellectual artist who still believes in the communist dream, the "sturdy" comrade with whom he is hopelessly in love, the pretzel vendor, the mad printer, the laid-off stevedore, the boss who picks him out from the team to be let go, the man who walks backwards, the wealthy but unhappy businessman, the young girl with the broken tooth and the frozen smile she uses to cover it, the proprietor of the local diner, the famous Crystal Lunchroom. It gave me a vivid sense of the time: people living in cold tenements, heated by small coal fires, envying the people in apartment buildings with steam heat. I loved the characters, the vivid, evocative writing, the juxtapositions of internal and external experience. "Cold air tore into the slums. Around the kitchen stoves sat families, and fed the fuel in sparingly, like handling scraps to hungry dogs. Those rooms which were not in use were locked off, to save the heat, and the rooms which had no doors had old, grubby blankets nailed to the tops of the doorways, and there they hung, like tent-flaps; that helped a little. On the Hudson River, Skipper Jim Hawkins, master of an up-and-back ferry, walked from stern to port side, thinking of a piece he had read in the papers some time ago which called upon all Americans, all loyal American citizens to take their money out of hoarding and put it into banks. Another ferry passed, going the other way, snorting, groaning. Looking aloft, staring at the wintry, evening sky, Jim Hawkins made his way toward the bow, trying to make up his mind if he should take his few dollars out of that White Owl cigar box in his Jersey City room and deposit in some safe savings bank. Waves slapped the side of the boat, ahead were the lights of Manhattan, glittering like a spray of radium beads." Thanks, Rick!

Review # 2 was written on 2018-10-11 00:00:00 Thomas Difilippo Maravillosa obra que nos relata con humor y ternura la vida de una familia judía en los años 30 en EEUU tras la Gran Depresión cuya historia es más actual de lo que parece. Tiene unos personajes maravillosos y está excelentemente contada. Es triste a la vez que que humorística.