Pete Hamill (1) (1935–2020)

Tabloid City is a day in New York City, and what a day it is. It starts just after midnight with Sam Briscoe, editor of the last slowly dying afternoon tabloid in New York City, contemplating the next day's headlines. He's a newspaperman from way back who longs for the days when the papers weren't being encroached upon by an army of websites. He pines for the days of smoky newsrooms filled with activity, for headlines that people were eager to read instead of the same old bad news. But Sam show more is just one of many characters that populate the pages of Tabloid City. Its pages are filled with characters ranging from a wealthy socialite and philanthropist to a Muslim extremist to a war veteran bent on revenge to a police officer whose own son has gone wrong all of whose paths will cross in the shadow of murder all in Hamill's one day in New York City.

Tabloid City is not told in chapters but in minutes. The story is not written in first person style, nonetheless every few pages, marked by the new time, the perspective changes to a different character, covering dozens of characters. This style is perfect for the story Hamill is trying to tell. It, plus its present tense storytelling, conveys the urgency, the quickness with which momentous changes occur in a city that pulses with life at all hours. It captures a cross-section of the city's denizens and their complicated, often distant, relationships. Hamill is a champion at bringing his city to life. Many of the things that make New York unique find their way into the pages, and the gritty daily grind of the city that never sleeps is palpable through the eyes of longtime residents who have grown weary of their anonymous struggle against its changing face. Hamill paints a picture of New York struggling in recession and of people who are relentlessly nostalgic for lives that they used to live in a New York that was, if not simpler, than at least more real.

Tabloid City is about New York, a city where changes are always only minutes away, but a city that longs for its own past. It's also about humanity. The characters here are anything but lovable. They are angry, they are mysterious, they are hurting, needing, lost, vengeful, but, above all, real. Each is hurtling along toward their destiny in an unforgiving place, a place they can't help but love. Tabloid City does have somewhat of a thrilling end, but the journey is the better part. show less

‘’In that lost city of memory, the wind is always blowing hard from the harbor and the snow is packed tightly on the hills of Prospect Park. They are skating on the Big Lake and the hallways of the tenements are wet with melted snow and the downtown stores are glad with blinking lights and the churches smell of pine and awe.’’

Pete Hamill’s stories transport us to Brooklyn, in a time when everything seemed simple, and much more innocent. From the 50s to the 80s, his stories echo the show more struggles of people who love, deceive, hate, hope, kill. Bittersweet, harrowing, hopeful, tragic, every page gives us a glimpse into the lives of women and men who faced a reality that had nothing to do with today’s world where only cheap mottos, made up by dubious individuals can be heard. Yes, times were hard back then but, at least, people believed. Today, most of us demonstrate our endless idiocy, our empty, superficial ‘minds’ and our blabbering, severely overused mouths.
I’d rather spend all my life in the poor Brooklyn neighbourhoods of the 50s than our falsely affluent cities, full of illiterate influencers and Youtubers who poison the minds of our children.

These are my favourite stories in the collection.

‘’There were other drawings too; buildings with spirals of black cloud issuing from chimneys; barefoot men with shaved heads and gray pajamas; watchtowers; barbed wire.’’

The Christmas Kid: In one of the most moving stories I’ve ever read, a boy who has survived the nightmare of the German demons, finds warmth and kindness in the city of New York. But demons are always lurking nearby…

The Price of Love: A divorced man tries to decipher his feelings for his ex-wife.

The Love of His Life: A man spends all his life waiting for the girl of his youth.

‘’He always loved this time of the New York day, when the sun faded and the light turned a warm grey, softening the hard edges of the world.’’

Good-bye: A married couple has to face the toughest decision.

6/6/44: A story paying tribute to D-Day, the day when Hitler’s reign of terror came to an end, the day to which we all owe our freedom.

The Men in Black Raincoats: The crime of a former IRA man comes back to haunt him.

Gone: A man becomes the victim of a peculair crime. Judging by the current state of our cities, full of ‘’citizens’’ of a barbaric ‘faith’ that dictates them to decapitate babies and rape dead women, I can’t say I blame him…

The Second Summer: A Muslim young woman from Syria has to obey her heathen parents and their law of Allah.

The Man With the Blue Guitar: An Italian widow falls in love with a young Greek man but her late husband’s brother has other views in mind.

The Waiting Game: In a too-good-to-be-true story, a man waits patiently for the love of his life.

Up the Roof: A woman who has lost her husband in the Korean War finds solace in an unlikely place. But will it last?

The Book Signing: In a shocking story, a successful writer cannot escape the fate that cries for retribution.

This collection is not for today’s audience. It seemingly has no place in a ‘culture’ of tattoos, unwashed wannabe- Che Guevaras who live in luxury and selfie-takers. However, there is always the blessed minority of the sane who will treasure a world that has disappeared forever.

‘’I must be healing, he thought. I don’t fear, I don’t love, I don’t hate. The wound is closed. I am alone. I am indifferent. I have survived.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ show less

“The only way to fight nostalgia is to listen to somebody else's nostalgia”

Late one night, in lower Manhattan, a wealthy socialite and her assistant, are brutally murdered. Over the next twenty-four hours, we follow a cast of characters, as their lives have been touched, by this heinous crime. Leading the pack is, Sam Briscoe, an aging editor of a failing New York newspaper and former lover of the woman murdered. We get a snapshot of the newsroom in decline, as it deals with another show more “Tabloid” headline.
Hamill weaves the rest of the characters, into an urban tapestry, showing a city in the midst of change, with gritty, masterful flair.

This was my first book by this author and I look forward to reading more of his work. show less

Unheard of! A miracle! Or magic, at the very least. In the midst of a December blizzard, on his way to serve at Saturday mass, 11-year-old Michael Devlin hears a voice asking for his help. When he realizes it's coming from the synagogue across the street, he has some trepidation...there are stories about Jews, everyone has heard them. But the rabbi calling to him seems harmless, sad, a bit lost. And Michael also knows that his father died fighting the Nazis, who did terrible things to Jews; show more his father would have wanted him to be kind, to be helpful. Thus begins an adventure that even Michael's extremely healthy imagination, fueled by Marvel comics and his mother's stories of Irish heroes, could not have invented. Rabbi Hirsch, it turns out, is very new to America; his English is rough; his wife is dead; his congregation is dwindling. And he needs a Shabbos goy to do the tasks he cannot perform for himself on the Sabbath under Jewish law. A marvelous friendship develops, as Michael not only turns on the lights and shovels the sidewalks, but helps the Rabbi with his English and sorts out the mysteries of baseball for him. In turn, his new friend tells him tales of old Prague, teaches him Yiddish, and becomes a source of comfort and wisdom. The Brooklyn neighborhood where Michael and Rabbi Hirsch live is not a congenial place. It is terrorized by a gang of useless yout's who call themselves the Falcons. Women, children, and especially Jews are considered fair game for taunting, extortion, and worse. As winter recedes and the summer approaches, life heats up on Ellison Street. Michael needs to grow up fast, and make hard decisions for himself. His vivid imaginings of Rabbi Hirsch's Old Country and his mother's auld sod set the stage for an ending in which snow in August is just the first of many miracles. show less