Halsey Street (Unabridged)
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4.0 • 10 Ratings
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- $25.99
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
A modern-day story of family, loss, and renewal, Halsey Street captures the deeply human need to belong—not only to a place but to one another.
Penelope Grand has scrapped her failed career as an artist in Pittsburgh and moved back to Brooklyn to keep an eye on her ailing father. She's accepted that her future won't be what she'd dreamed, but now, as gentrification has completely reshaped her old neighborhood, even her past is unrecognizable. Old haunts have been razed, and wealthy white strangers have replaced every familiar face in Bed-Stuy. Even her mother, Mirella, has abandoned the family to reclaim her roots in the Dominican Republic. That took courage. It's also unforgivable.
When Penelope moves into the attic apartment of the affluent Harpers, she thinks she's found a semblance of family—and maybe even love. But her world is upended again when she receives a postcard from Mirella asking for reconciliation. As old wounds are reopened, and secrets revealed, a journey across an ocean of sacrifice and self-discovery begins.
An engrossing debut, Halsey Street shifts between the perspectives of these two captivating, troubled women. Mirella has one last chance to win back the heart of the daughter she'd lost long before leaving New York, and for Penelope, it's time to break free of the hold of the past and start navigating her own life.
Customer Reviews
Good Writing, Emotionally Flat
After spending five years in Pittsburgh, substitute art teacher Penelope Grand returns to Halsey Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. With her mother gone back to the Dominican Republic, Penelope returns to take care of her father who was injured in a fall. Wanting her own place, she rents the room in the attic of a brownstone of one the white families who has moved to a rapidly gentrifying area. Alternating between the points of view of Penelope and her mother Mirella, this books explores themes of forgiveness and family.
This book has so much to admire. The writing is excellent with a very detailed prose evoking the time and place of the characters. While I could see everything vividly in my mind’s eye, the prose was very dense without advancing the plot or developing the characters. Through the book I found the characters emotionless, especially Penelope, and I didn’t understand their motives. I wanted this book to say more about art, but it’s tangential thread through the novel. I was hoping this book explored more of the gentrification and changes in Brooklyn and New York City. A main character who is half black and half Dominican is very interesting, but I never understood her actions. I found both Penelope and Mirella unlikeable for different reason. Penelope was quite bad to everyone in the novel except the little girl, Grace. I just wanted her to see a therapist the whole time. I thought the book was quite good and an enjoyable read, but I didn’t feel a connection to Penelope which mad the ending feel flat.