Reviews

In Hoboken by Christian Bauman

brits_got_books's review

3.0

I definitely agree that this novel deserves to be in the company of the highly-acclaimed "High Fidelity" I thought there was a great story and the author managed to juggle the stories of the several main characters very well. I did have a few issues, though. There were times were it seemed they wrote the wrong name in--for example, using Mona when they meant Alice. And I would have preferred a little more into Thatcher's and James' lives. For example, with Thatcher being in the army and have an ex-fiancee--it seemed a bit rushed and wasn't brought up a lot after the beginning of the book. How did this affect him mentally? Did it really all come down to his relationship--or lack thereof--with his mother?

Definitely an intriguing read and I felt he did well with a lot of the characters' story lines.

greeniezona's review

5.0

In Hoboken is a novel soaked in a love of place. And what's better, at least for any reader born west of the Monongahela River and tired of reading endless love letters to streets and neighborhoods in New York City that we've never heard of, Bauman never takes for granted that we also already know and love his city. Rather, Bauman is the perfectly engaging host, driving us around and pointing out the ballparks, the memorials, the beloved landmarks, before pulling over and dragging us into the diner with the best coffee on the planet. He lets us in on all the local characters, the gossip, and the prejudices. It may be tragic that the end effect is that I don't know if I ever want to set foot in Hoboken. I want to go on believing that everything in the city is just as he's described it. I don't want to run the risk of tracking down that diner, squeezing my way up the counter and then not have anyone bark at me, "We playing games here?"

This third novel feels like Bauman finally hitting his stride.

richard's review

This book had its moments, but I mostly just wanted it to end.