Book description
It's the boom years of the 1980s, and life is closing in on Nathan
Seltzer, who rarely travels outside his suddenly gentrifying Lower
East Side neighbourhood. While he tries to decide whether he should
cheat on his wife with Karoline, a German pastry chef 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
neighbourhood.
With its ensemble cast of unforgettable characters, Boogaloo on
2nd Avenue is a comedy of cultures about the old and the new,
about Latinos, Jews, Sicilians and Germans. It's about struggling to
hold onto life in a rapidly changing world, about food and sex and
about how our lives are shaped by love and guilt.
Mark Kurlansky is the bestselling author of
Cod: A Biography of
the Fish that Changed the World
(winner of the Glenfidish Best Food Book Award),
The Basque History
of the World
,
Salt: A World History,
1968: The Year that Rocked the World
and a short story collection
The White Man in the Tree
(all published by Cape and Vintage). He lives in New York City with his
wife and daughter.
