2 out of 4 stars
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Notes on The Bronx is a work of fiction by Mark S. Greenberg. Hosting a collection of short stories and poetry, the book is broken into four segments, with each segment following the same structure: short poem, medium-length story, and longer story. The segments represent seasons, beginning with Summer. According to the “About the Book” notes, the storyline is modeled after The Four Seasons, a classical music composition by famed composer Antonio Vivaldi, where each season comprises a shorter complete work that fits seamlessly into the whole. As the title denotes, Bronx, NY is the overarching theme of this book.
The pieces in this book are connected in a way that is not immediately apparent, leaving the reader to decode the author’s cryptic intention. Certain themes seem to appear more than once, with photography and the Jewish culture being the most obvious examples. The author’s writing style is unique, showcasing an interesting assortment of sentence fragments and beautifully-depicted imagery with immaculate phrasing. At times, this conspicuous dichotomy left me scratching my head.
While I’m certain I did not decipher every hidden nuance the book had to offer, I did easily unearth frequent grammatical and punctuation errors. Although this did not greatly interfere with my ability to follow along, it certainly was distracting. Larger issues with flow were noticeable when the subject or speaker was not clearly identified. Occasionally a character would appear as though the reader ought to know them, but the introduction had never occurred. I felt largely that the stories were not interesting enough to earn a place in the short lineup of pieces in this book, and would have enjoyed better character development and more intriguing plots.
As a whole, I think the concept behind this book is tremendously clever. I love what the author has envisioned and feel it has great potential as a theme. I really enjoyed the poetry and feel that style of writing was the author’s forte in this work. There were a handful of simplistic black and white photos that made for a lovely addition. As I mentioned earlier, there were times when the writing was superbly crafted, seeped in vivid details and subtle plays on words.
As the reader, what I was really hoping to find was more engaging stories; something that would hold my attention. Additional editing is a must for this piece, and with the proper revisions, I feel this book could be a terrific read. In its current state, I can only offer 2 out of 4 stars.
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Notes on The Bronx
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