When
I chose this book, I understood I was picking up nonfiction. I like nonfiction
when it’s told as a narrative. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I love
historical fiction so much. Based on the dust jacket cover, even though “A
Memoir” is printed right below the title, I thought I was picking up a
biography of the Clancy family from maybe the 1930s through the 1950s. I was
surprised to learn the timeframe is late 20th-century into early 21st
century. I will admit that I didn’t’ read much past the first sentence of the
book’s description. “Fifth-generation New Yorker, third-generation bartender,
and first generation author…” sealed the deal for me. What I thought I was
getting and what I got was a pleasant surprise, and an excellent read.
We
first meet Tara Clancy when she is seven years old. She divides her time
between four homes: Her father’s converted boat shed (talk about open-layout),
her mother’s dingy apartment and her mother’s boyfriend’s Hampton estate, and
that special place in Queens: her grandparents’ home in a geriatric area filled
with Brooklyn-born Italians.
Clancy
does an excellent job is depicting her family, the area, her friends, and her
lifestyle. I won’t say it was addictive reading, but each evening I looked
forward to seeing what Clancy was up to next. I was surprised to learn that all
of character’s names had not been changed to protect the innocent, but there is
nothing horrible about each one. They are who they are, and I found this
refreshing.
The
person who most rubbed me the wrong way was Clancy’s grandmother. She was
rough. A no-nonsense, foul-mouth Italian immigrant, she was a force to be dealt
with. That’s one of the things that make The
Clancy’s of Queens such a fascinating read. It’s the real story of real
people, not some sugar-coated adaptation of the mild mannered immigrant
grateful for the opportunities American provided.
Readers
get to experience life in a real way, in Clancy’s way, and those real-life
stories are often hard to come by. I have several favorite episodes, but the
ones that stand out are:
·
Making her
rounds through the neighborhood after being dropped off at her grandmother’s.
This sounded like fun and reminded me of my dad making his rounds after he
retired.
·
Her mother
taking her to Los Angeles to introduce her to her sexuality
·
Weekends spent
on Mark’s (her mother boyfriend) Hampton estate, where there was
croquette, no television, and hours and hours of philosophical discussion
between Clancy and Mark.
The Clancys of
Queens gets 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.
I received this book from Blogging for Books in
exchange for this review.
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