by Adela M. Brito

Created on: July 25, 2007   Last Updated: July 26, 2007

On New Year's Day 1934, Dr. John Finbar Delaney's life changes. He awakens to an emergency house call to tend to his ex-army buddy turned mobster whose been shot. Upon his return, he finds his three-year-old grandson, wrapped in blankets, at his front door. Both these events have an effect on the good doctor's life: one could get him killed, and the other just might save him.

Pete Hamill's tenth novel, North River, takes the reader through Depression-era New York with tenderness and nostalgia. Hamill's love for his city is obvious here, just as it is in his essays, his previous novel, Forever, and his memoir, A Drinking Life. The city - for Hamill - is not just the setting, but also a vibrant character.

Dr. Delaney compassionately tends to his patients at his home, or theirs. His patients include: neighbors, gangsters, prostitutes, and anyone else who shows up at his door. In most cases, he receives no payment for taking care of them. But, the generous doctor has trouble taking care of himself often wearing the same suit for days, living in a home without steam heat, and being haunted by his war memories and his recently-disappeared wife. A few months prior, Molly, John's wife, went for a walk by the river and never returned, while his only child, Grace, has not been around since her son was an infant. These events have left him numb. The cycle of abandonment is what has caused the pain in his life. He left his wife and young child to serve as a medic in World War I, and returned to resentment, forming a gap between him and his wife that was never mended. In turn, his wife left - intentionally or not - and his daughter left the country in pursuit of her revolutionary Mexican husband. However, the unexpected appearance of his grandson, Carlito, and the nurturing presence of Rose, the Sicilian woman he hires to care for the young boy, help fill the vacancy and ease the sadness. Although Delaney thinks he knows the whereabouts of his daughter because of the letter she left when she abandoned Carlito, he is concerned about her safety. When the FBI comes looking for her, those fears are confirmed. The blossoming home life is soon in jeopardy after Delaney saves the life of his friend, Eddie Corso. Frankie Botts, a mobster rival of Corso, threatens the doctor and those he cares about.

Delaney's story is one of courage and passion. Mostly it's a story of family and love, and the different forms they can take. The interaction between Delaney and his grandson, who initially only speaks Spanish, is amusing and touching. Although sometimes, there is too much sentimentality in the writing, and the troubles of the Irish have been a long-standing theme and overdone in literature and film, Hamill tells a good tale that brings us into that time in history.

Publication Date: June 2007 Pages: 341 Price: $25.99 Format: Hardcover Original ISBN -13: 978-0-316-34058-8

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