Nothing Is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn

by Alice Mattison

Book Overview

From critically acclaimed author Alice Mattison, "a charmer" (New York Times) whose "voice is like that of no one else writing today" (Kirkus)--comes a profoundly moving meditation on love, friendship, and the unforgotten past

One quiet spring day in 1989, Constance Tepper arrives from Philadelphia to watch over her mother's Brooklyn apartment and her orange cat. Con's mother, Gert, has left town to visit her old friend...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061430552
• ISBN13: 9780061430558
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Well worth any reader's time

The voice of Brooklyn is back with another complex and fascinating novel, Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn. Author Alice Mattison is known for her short story collections and novels. Among my favorite was The Book Borrower. Brooklyn is again the setting for this tale that alternates between 1989 and 2003. In 1989, Constance "Con" Tepper comes to Brooklyn to mind her mother's apartment and feed a constantly shedding cat. Gert has gone upstate to visit her dear friend, Marlene. On the first night, a stranger walks into the apartment and takes Con's purse. Con is left with no keys and no money. She cannot leave the apartment; she is afraid to leave without locking the door. She cannot call a locksmith because she has no money to pay the bill. She turns to her only connection to the world, the phone. In 2003, Con has moved into the apartment. She has divorced her husband, Jerry, but they remain somewhat good friends. Con has continued her work as a lawyer-not for a corporation, like in 1989, but for a non-profit. Marlene is coming to visit and Jerry is coming to crash on her couch will in New York. Con is also expecting her daughter, Joanna. The arrival of these three at one time throws Con into a state of depression and near regret. The alternating time frames are easily to follow. In the 1989 sections, I was quite intrigued with the World War II-era letters from Marlene to Gert that Con found in the apartment. They provide an enigma to the relationship between Gert and Marlene. Con was fascinated with Marlene when she was a child and the letters shed a new light onto that secondary friendship. As for the 2003 sections, I was fascinated by the relics of a lost elevated train that was supposed to be a time-saver back in the 1920s. I gave Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn a four-star rating because there is a major discrepancy in how Con meets Gert's neighbor, Peggy, one of the novel's secondary characters. Except for that issue, this is a story worth a reader's time. Armchair Interviews says: The surprises and twists add a deeper layer.

A verbal symphony

Alice Mattison has written the equivalent of a symphony. There is the main theme of the novel's central (intriguing! gripping!) mystery; there is the secondary theme of the mystery of the Brooklyn Circle, and there are multiple themes having to do with the mysteries of friendship, memory, mother/daughter and husband/wife relationships, woven gracefully throughout. This book is DELECTABLE -- like a loaf of chewy whole wheat bread filled with raisins and other surprises -- and will be a rich companion (after which you will want all her other books).

intriguing character study

In 1989 fortyish Constance "Con" Tepper leaves her Philadelphia home to stay in her septuagenarian mom's Brooklyn apartment to watch the cat while Gertrude visits her friend Marlene in Rochester. Con has always wondered about the friendship between the two women that apparently dates back to WW II when she persuaded Gert to invest in a black market scheme run by her mobster boyfriend. In Brooklyn, Con is angry and jealous of her teen daughter Joanna who is accompanying her dad Jerry on a historical visit to Fort Ticonderoga; Jerry has never invited her on one of his history tours in spite of their years of marriage. The real shocker is when Marlene callas to inform her Gert died and that she, not the deceased daughters, is executor of the estate. In 2003, a divorced Con lives in Brooklyn where she practices law. With Marlene, Jerry, Joanna and a friend coming at the same time to Brooklyn, Con looks back to 1989. However, it is Joanna who confronts Marlene over discrepancies in the account of Gert's death and the legal aftermath. Told in two interrelated novellas, this is an intriguing character study although there are too many subplots; some not fully developed. Each key protagonist is developed enough so that the audience sees their motivations and flaws. Fans will enjoy this look at the past as Joanna insures NOTHING IS QUITE FORGOTTEN IN BROOKLYN even when it occurred six decades ago. Harriet Klausner