Anna Quindlan
Penguin Random House
Anna Quindlan is one of my favourite authors – I’ve been a fan since her days as a columnist at the New York Times. But her latest novel, Alternate Side, isn’t my most-loved. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not badly written or filled with false characters, but it’s just a bit too inside baseball for the average reader.
The game in question here isn’t the grand old game though, it’s New York City. In order to really get this book, I feel like you have to be from there, and even perhaps born and raised there.
The title of the book refers to a parking regime in NYC, whereby cars cannot park on one side of the street or the other, depending on which day of the week it is, due to a street sweeping schedule. Parking in NYC is central to this story, which is about neighbours who live in a dead-end block in the big apple.
Parking is at a premium, but the folks in the neighbourhood pride themselves on getting free parking and being able to game the system. On the dead-end block there is one empty lot, where a few cars can park. But spots there are earned on a seniority system and it takes several years to make it onto the coveted list.
This particular dead-end block has a handyman – Ricky – who everyone uses and gets to know over the years. Ricky has a pesky habit of parking his van where it blocks the entrance to the empty lot parking lot. He insists there is enough room for cars to get around, but the neighbours disagree.
One day this parking tension reaches a crisis point, an event that serves as a catalyst to move the story along, making it more than a portrait of a small community. Nora Nolan runs a jewelry museum, while her husband Charlie works in an office. Their neighbours are in turns kind, funny, too rich, cranky and bossy. An unknown someone takes to leaving bags of dog poop on Nora’s front steps; another neighbour regularly leaves notes in everyone’s mail slots.
Quindlen has written nine novels, a memoir, and several other non-fiction books. I’ve always loved her columns the most – they were short, snappy commentaries on life, politics and current events. Her novels have also been first class – an early standout was One True Thing, which was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger. Streep was nominated for best actress for the role, which was as a mother dying of cancer, a story based on Quindlen’s real life.
Alternate Side is lovingly written – a gentle, admiring ode to the author’s home town – but it lacks the zing of her earlier novels, which tackled subjects like domestic abuse, mercy killing and mass shootings. It’s still an enjoyable ready, but don’t expect too many fireworks.
tracy.sherlock@gmail.com
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