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Summary
Summary
One whirlwind week of love, blackmail, and betrayal follows three brothers through teeming prewar New York in this "entertaining . . . outsized . . . big, expressive debut" ( Wall Street Journal ).
June 1939. Francis Dempsey and his shell-shocked brother, Michael, are on an ocean liner from Ireland bound for their brother Martin's home in New York City, having stolen a small fortune from the IRA. During the week that follows, the lives of these three brothers collide spectacularly with big-band jazz musicians, a talented but fragile heiress, a Jewish street photographer facing a return to Nazi-occupied Prague, a vengeful mob boss, and the ghosts of their own family's revolutionary past.
When Tom Cronin, an erstwhile assassin forced into one last job, tracks the brothers down, their lives begin to fracture. Francis must surrender to blackmail or have his family suffer fatal consequences. Michael, lost and wandering alone, turns to Lilly Bloch, a heartsick artist, to recover his decimated memory. And Martin and his wife, Rosemary, try to salvage their marriage and, ultimately, the lives of the other Dempseys. Meanwhile, with the Depression receding, all of New York is suffused with an electric feeling of hope, caught up in the fervor of the World's Fair and eager for good times after a decade of deprivation.
From the smoky jazz joints of Harlem to the opulent Plaza Hotel, from the garrets of vagabonds and artists in the Bowery to the backroom warrens and shadowy warehouses of mobsters in Hell's Kitchen, Brendan Mathews brings the prewar metropolis to vivid, pulsing life. The sweeping, intricate, and ambitious storytelling throughout this remarkable debut reveals an America that blithely hoped it could avoid another catastrophic war and focus instead on the promise of the World's Fair: a peaceful, prosperous "World of Tomorrow."
One whirlwind week of love, blackmail, and betrayal following three brothers through teeming prewar New York in this "entertaining . . . outsized . . . big, expressive debut" ( Wall Street Journal )
"A masterfully crafted novel . . . Comic, violent, and moving in equal measure."-John Irving
"As rich and raucous as the city it celebrates."- O., The Oprah Magazine
"Admirably fearless . . . Mathews has talent in buckets."- New York Times Book Review
Author Notes
Brendan Mathews , a Fulbright Scholar to Ireland, has published stories in Glimmer Train , the Virginia Quarterly Review , and the Cincinnati Review , among other publications, and his fiction has twice appeared in The Best American Short Stories . He lives with his wife and four children in Lenox, Massachusetts, and teaches at Bard College at Simon's Rock.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Three Irish brothers tumble through New York during an eventful two weeks in June 1939, in Mathews's masterful debut novel. Francis, temporarily released to attend his father's funeral from the prison where he was being held for distributing pornographic literature, is in possession of some IRA cash he bungled into in the wake of a bomb blast. Francis has conceived an audacious plan to make it to America posing as a Scottish aristocrat, and is turning a few American heiresses' heads in the process. With him is his brother Michael, on leave from the seminary for the same funeral, who was shell-shocked by the explosion that netted Francis his money and has struck up a friendship with the ghost of Irish poet William Butler Yeats. Their older brother, Martin, is already in New York, where he is trying to make a living as a jazz musician, to the chagrin of his politically connected in-laws. Once reunited, the brothers are pursued by Cronin, a former IRA hit man who has retired to a farm on the Hudson River, and his menacing boss Gavigan, who concocts a sinister plan involving the visit of the British royalty to the World's Fair being held at that time in New York. Despite its length, this novel is a remarkably fast and exhilarating read, reminiscent of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Like a juggler keeping multiple balls in the air, Mathews regularly adds new characters and their complicated stories to the volatile mix, without losing track of the original ones. With the wit of a '30s screwball comedy and the depth of a thoroughly researched historical novel, this one grabs the reader from the beginning to its suspenseful climax. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Mathews' colorful debut novel examines the legacy of Irish political violence for a family in both the old country and New York during one busy week in 1939.Francis Dempsey, who has been jailed for selling banned books and luxury items, gets a furlough from Dublin's Mountjoy Jail for his father's funeral. There, he is joined by his unhappy seminarian brother, Michael, and several old Irish Republican Army buddies of his father's, who rig an escape for the brothers that involves an IRA bomb factory. There, an accidental explosion leaves Michael shellshocked and the brothers in possession of a Republican war chest. Francis uses the money to present himself as a Scottish lord and books passage for himself and his brother to New York on the RMS Britannic. His fake title leads Francis to a wealthy Manhattan girlfriend and a dangerous role in a New York mob boss's plans. Michael's dazed state leads to a fascinating relationship with the restless ghost of the recently deceased William Butler Yeats. Meanwhileand there's a lot of meanwhile in this busy doorstopa third Dempsey brother, Martin, who has been in New York for 10 years, is trying to get a jazz band together for his sister-in-law's wedding reception and impress recording legend John Hammond. But the bride-to-be, who performs synchronized swimming as an AquaBelle at the World's Fair, is having second thoughts about her nuptials after a night at the Plaza Hotel with Francis. Among the many splashes of New York atmosphere, the strongest are snapshots of the city's prewar musical frenzy. Weaving through it all is an old IRA enforcer with a tragic tie to the Dempseys who found escape on an upstate New York farm until the mob boss forces him to find the war chest and Francis. Mathews' debut shows impressive control of this narrative cornucopia, although his reliance on characters' thoughts to propel the plot can be tiresome. It's not Doctorow's Ragtime, but there's a similar feel in this impressive, wide-ranging debut. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Francis Dempsey, on furlough from prison to attend his father's funeral with his seminarian brother Michael, escapes with help from the IRA. When an accidental explosion at a safe house-and-bomb factory leaves three dead and Michael shell-shocked, Francis books passage for him and Michael, posing as Scottish royalty and aided in their ruse by a trunk full of stolen IRA money. The plan is to reunite with eldest brother Martin, who is trying to make a name for himself in the burgeoning New York jazz scene while struggling to support his wife and young children. Francis sets to courting the daughter of an industrial titan, while impaired Michael, accompanied by the ghost of William Butler Yeats, gets lost in the city and befriended by Lily Bloch, a Czech photographer hoping to delay her return to Nazi-occupied Prague. The IRA wants its money back, but the local boss sees an opportunity to use Francis and his assumed aristocratic identity in an assassination plot when English royalty visit the 1939 World's Fair, dubbed the World of Tomorrow. As everything rolls toward an adrenaline-fueled finale, Mathews brilliantly creates characters who embody the esprit de corps of immigrants and movingly explores themes of class, society, race, and family. For fans of Michael Chabon and E. L. Doctorow.--Kelly, Bill Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
FOREST DARK, by Nicole Krauss. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) Tracing the lives of two Americans in Israel, one a celebrated novelist and the other a successful older lawyer, this restless novel explores the mysteries of disconnection and the divided self, of feeling oneself in two places at once. UNBELIEVABLE: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History, by Katy Tur. (Dey St./William Morrow, $26.99.) Tur's breezy journalist's memoir is really a story of one woman's endurance. Donald Trump singled her out for particularly harsh insults at his political rallies, but she soldiered on, sometimes through dangerous situations. THE CRISIS OF MULTICULTURALISM IN EUROPE: A History, by Rita Chin. (Princeton, $35.) An associate professor of history at the University of Michigan analyzes the current debates in Europe over immigration and Western values to create a vivid picture of a continent consumed by social tensions. THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, by Brendan Mathews. (Little, Brown, $28.) Mathews's admirably fearless debut novel, about Irish brothers on the run in 1930s New York, is long and full of digression, which is no knock; for what is a good novel - or a good life - but a long series of digressions? A RIFT IN THE EARTH: Art, Memory, and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial, by James Reston Jr. (Arcade, $24.99.) The arguments over the construction of a Vietnam memorial were angrier even than current disputes over Confederate monuments, and Reston's narrative is insightful and unexpectedly affecting. AMONG THE LIVING AND THE DEAD: A Tale of Exile and Homecoming on the War Roads of Europe, by Inara Verzemnieks. (Norton, $26.95.) Verzemnieks's family history interleaves stories of the grandparents who left Latvia and raised her in Tacoma, Wash., and of her great-aunt who stayed behind. She also confronts Latvians' fraught participation in World War II. DINNER AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, by Nathan Englander. (Knopf, $26.95.) In a novel that gleefully blends thriller elements with sociohistorical considerations, a disgraced Israeli agent offers tragicomic reflections on the broken promises of the Promised Land. ONE DAY WE'LL ALL BE DEAD AND NONE OF THIS WILL MATTER, by Scaachi Koul. (Picador, paper, $16.) Koul's irreverent and funny essays explore the binds of being the child of immigrants, shuttling between Canada and India, between love and resentment. THE GOLDEN HOUSE, by Salman Rushdie. (Random House, $28.99.) The Obama years form the backdrop of this novel about a billionaire and his enigmatic family after they arrive in New York. Avoiding spoilers is tricky, but suffice it to say the body count is high. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Library Journal Review
DEBUT Creative writing and literature professor Mathews's (Bard Coll. at Simon's Rock) first novel is all you could want in a piece of popular fiction. The tension never lets up, and the story is fast and mind--spinningly complicated. The many characters are well fleshed out; with few exceptions, you care about them. In 1939, storm clouds are gathering across the Atlantic, but the New York World's Fair promises an exciting future ("Asbestos: The Miracle Mineral," proclaims one exhibit). This massive yet charming book delivers guns and explosives, an elaborate con perpetrated on a rich New York family by a fake Scottish laird who's really a runaway Irish convict hunted by the IRA, menacings galore, and a man who threatens to kill anyone who stands in his way. There's suspense, humor, love, of both the doomed and requited varieties, and even a ghost of the poet William -Butler Yeats. VERDICT This novel should prove irresistible to anyone wanting a diverting read. It's quality stuff-and fun. [See Prepub Alert, 4/1/17.]-David Keymer, Modesto, CA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.