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    North River
    North River
    North River
    Audiobook12 hours

    North River

    Written by Pete Hamill

    Narrated by Henry Strozier

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In North River, critically acclaimed, best-selling author Pete Hamill whisks listeners back to 1934-when the Great Depression held New York City in its relentless grip-for a story of one remarkable man's perseverance. Haunted by the horrors ofWorldWar I, Dr. James Delaney's personal life is a nightmare. But everything changes when he returns home one day to find his three-year-old grandson on his doorstep.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 10, 2008
    ISBN9781436102377
    North River

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    Reviews for North River

    4/5

    224 ratings20 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Never read a Pete Hamill novel before. Liked it, but not exactly my usual kind of book. Made depression-era lower Manhattan seem a little more real.
    • 5/5
      In his descriptions of life and everyday habits, Hamill paints a vivid and warm picture of New York during the Great Depression. The protagonist is an Everyman hero, full of honor, dedication, and service.

      The narrator, Henry Strozier, imbues the author’s story with a richness and warmth that makes you want to inhabit the neighborhood of this world.
    • 3/5
      North River???By Pete Hamill2007Little BrownDr Delaney, haunted by memories of war, is a devoted and compassion physician, ministering to many who can not pay, gangsters, prostitutes and gang members. Living alone after is wife Molly disappears, he returns home one day to find a baby in a basket on his doorstep. A note reveals it is only daughters son, Carlito, she is unable to take care of. Delaney hires a Sicilian woman, Rosa to help with the baby. Carlito and Rosa warm this lonely, sad man into a new vibrancy and love.This takes place is 1930s New York, during the great depression, a time of Roosevelt and Tammany. His setting are so beautiful and sweeping, it was my fave part of the book.I really like Dr Delaney, too!!Although I loved Delaney and the dramatic setting, I found this a bit dry and lagging in place. Recommended with a So-So rating.
    • 5/5
      So beautiful. I'm still in tears, it moved me so very much. Read this, or listen to it; this book is amazing.
    • 3/5
      Set in New York during the depression, the GP doctor cares for the surrounding folks - the gangsters and the neighbors alike. His daughter leaves her son on his doorstep and heads off to Europe to find her wayward hubby, so the doc hires a 30something Italian immigrant to care for Carlos. Flashbacks to WWI, where the doc served in France with one of the mob bosses. Meandering at times, more like a beach read than anything.
    • 4/5
      3.5 starsNew York City of the mid-1930s is in the grips of the Great Depression and Dr. James Delaney is alone with his work. While he tends to the sick and injured all around his neighborhood, his daughter has left for Mexico and his unforgiving wife has vanished. But when Delaney returns home one snowy night, he finds his three-year-old grandson in front of his house with a note from his daughter. Overwhelmed, Delaney hires a tough Sicilian woman named Rose to take care of the boy. Can he make things work as he is caught in the middle of a mob war, abject poverty around him and Rose’s own secrets? And will his daughter one day return and take the only people holding his life together – Rose and his grandson – away from him?“In the gray morning, wrapped in his bathrobe, he pushed aside the life within the house and glanced through the newspapers: 400,000 on relief in New York, Hitler ranting in Germany, fighting in China, a volcano erupting in Mexico. There was a photograph of the erupting mountain with a peasant in the foreground, dressed in white pajamas and sandals and holding a machete. You missed this, Grace. You missed the volcano. What paintings it might have inspired. I always thought that you had married Mexico even more than Santos. You were not a communist. You were an artist. Or so I thought. And never said.” – page 115North River is very much a period piece, placed deep inside the parochial neighborhood setting of the urban New York City between the wars. The flappers of the 1920’s are long gone and the reality of the Great Depression is stark and depressing. However, while Hamill makes sure to describe the poverty and anger of the time, he doesn’t overdo it. He mixes in some beauty and happiness that immerses us in a very real NYC that none of us were alive to experience. It echoes some of the trials we are going through in our present day challenges, but it also makes you appreciate just how much worse things were then. Hamill does a wonderful job of fleshing out Dr. Delaney as well as all of the other characters in the book. Each one of them is meticulously created and artfully brought to life. Hamill is obviously a master of bringing characters into a reality. However, the story itself takes a very long time to develop. We are nearly halfway into the book before any real tension begins to form. In addition, the threats to Delaney never feel all that threatening, and the resolution at the end was pretty underwhelming. But the story really isn’t as much about the events as it is about the characters. North River is not written as much as it is woven into a comfortable read. Ultimately, North River is a good story, with some interesting characters set in a thoroughly detailed reconstruction of 1930’s New York City. If you are looking for a character driven period piece, North River may provide you an enjoyable trip into the lives of that place and era.
    • 4/5
      Sometimes you come across a small gem in the most unexpected places. North river by Pete Hamill is one of those gems. It is a book you should take the time to enjoy someday.
    • 4/5
      I read Pete Hamill books for many reasons, but one is because I love to see how he plays out his adoration for New York City. The city is more than a location for Hamill, it is a character in his writings. The man is in love with the place, its setting, history, people, quirks and sites. Through him, I get glimpses into the New York of the past, in the days before chain stores and globalization. It's one of the main things that keeps me reading Hamill -- he keeps declaring his love, and I keep exploring the New York of the early 1900s when my family first arrived, and when my parents were young.North River is full of the Depression, gangs, soldiers home from the war, the Tammany bosses, and the world of immigrants: Irish, Italian and Jewish, primarily. But it's also a love story and a story of a father/grandfather's love. What a joy it was to spend a few days in 1934 with Mr Hamill's story.
    • 5/5
      For a book that includes so much actual, not to mention potential violence, Pete Hamill’s North River is at its heart a very gentle novel. Dr. James Delaney, a WWI medic who was himself wounded in the war, is having a tough time of it in 1934 Greenwich Village. Delaney’s neighborhood patients are suffering the effects of the Depression and cash money to pay for Delaney’s services is hard to come by. Despite the fact that his wife, Molly, who suffers from depression, has walked out of his life and has not been heard from since, Delaney keeps her room as she left it in hopes that she will walk back into his world one day.His day-to-day routine, bleak as it is, is rocked one day when Delaney returns home to find that his daughter Grace has abandoned her two-year-old son at his doorstep. At first, Delaney is filled with anger that Grace would do such a thing. Later, he will realize that little Carlito and Rose, the woman he hired to help him care for the little boy, are two of the best things that ever happened to him.Delaney’s life grows complicated when he is called upon to save the life of Eddie Corso, a local mobster who has been gunned down by a rival gang. Delaney and Corso have a history going back to the first time Delaney saved Corso’s life – when Delaney risked German snipers to get to the severely wounded Corso one horrible day during the war. The bond the two men formed that day is as strong as ever. Unfortunately for Delaney and his grandson, rival gangster Frankie Botts is convinced that Delaney knows where the recuperating Corso is hiding, and Botts is willing to do anything to get that information, even if it involves the boy.But now comes the gentle (and best) part of the story. North River is really a very well written love story that encompasses the love of a man for his lost wife, his estranged daughter, his grandson, and soon enough for Rose, the Italian illegal emigrant who has moved so seamlessly into his life. Before long, little Carlito, who spent his first two years living in Mexico, is speaking Spanish, English, and even a good bit of Italian as he charms everyone in the Delaney household. Carlito’s world is one of constant discovery, and before long the adults around him cannot but help see the world through his new eyes, too.North River gives the reader a remarkable feel for life in one New York City neighborhood during the Depression. Hamill’s sense of what everyday life was like for those who lived within a few blocks of the Village during the thirties is a key element of his story. This is a combination of superb historical fiction, crime fiction and romance and, as such, it will certainly appeal to a variety of readers. Don’t miss this one.Rated at: 5.0
    • 5/5
      A little history, a little romance, a little violence - a great weekend read.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book. A great story with genuine characters.
    • 4/5
      A quite wonderful historical novel set in New York City between the two wars tells of Dr. Delaney's efforts to care for the sick in NYC while dealing with his own ghost - those of his disappeared wife and daughter, and the very real presence of a grandson left on his doorstep and the woman who come to care for him. An old fashioned novel where good triumphs
    • 5/5
      I just loved this book---listening to the audio version. It was so beautifully descriptive and I loved Henry Strozier as the reader. His handling of the accents, especially of Carlito and Rose, were wonderful. My idea of a perfect story.
    • 4/5
      I have to confess I bought this book while on holiday in Chicago, thinking it was about Chicago (North River - River North). I wanted a book to read later to remind me of our vacation. This book is not about Chicago. It takes places in New York during the depression. When I started it, I almost put it down because it wasn't at all what I had intended. It's almost a romance novel but from the point of view of a man who has many issues in his life to think about - slowly-paced with lovely writing. I usually like much more plot driven novels. I didn't put it down though and I really found that I enjoyed this novel. The characters were so real and the scenes were so well-written that I almost feel like I've had a journey to that time.
    • 4/5
      Greenwich Village, 1934, is where and when Dr. Delaney finds his 2 1/2 year old grandson seated in a stroller in his foyer - alone, but with a note. Trying to deal with the past, heal the poor and make do with what little money he receives for his services, Dr. Delaney now has to hire someone to take care of his grandson. Questions and concerns begin to arise regarding his daughter's disappearance and his choice to help out injured mob members. What has life brought him now?The description of New York and the general living conditions during the depression were very vivid. The neighbors, the streets, the restaurants - everything, contributed to the sense of being transported to a different era. The emotions of loss, hope, fear, joy, loneliness and love are all explored in this slow-paced, character driven novel. It's a good story with good writing to tell it. (3.5/5)Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..."
    • 3/5
      I actually had a hard time keeping to it. It was very good in parts, but there would be points throughout it that I would have a hard time focusing on the story.
    • 4/5
      For a crusty NY newspaperman, Pete Hamill writes a pretty good, pretty mushy love story.
    • 4/5
      I absolutely love Pete Hamill's writing style. "Forever" was the first book of his I read and still my favorite but "North River" is a wonderful story. A historical fiction set in New York City during the depression, Hamill makes the setting come alive and creates characters who are flawed and yet beautiful.
    • 4/5
      I read for my local book club. Very easy read. The thing I liked most about it was the references to local places in NY. As a recent transplant to CT, I thought this part was the most fascinating.
    • 2/5
      Hamill's tale of a man and his family moves slowly but creates fascinating characters and relationships.