Title: Visitation Street
Author: Ivy Pochoda
First published January 1, 2013
304 pages, Hardcover
ISBN: 9780062249890 (ISBN10: 0062249894)
Rating: 3.43
Overview
In the gritty neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn, a teenage girl’s disappearance sends shockwaves through the community. June and Val were just looking for some fun on a summer day when they decided to take a raft out onto the bay.
But as the day turned into night, only Val returned, washed ashore and barely conscious. The disappearance of June will affect the lives of a diverse group of Red Hook residents, including Fadi, the Lebanese bodega owner who seeks information about the crime, and Cree, who unwittingly becomes the chief suspect.
As Val tries to move on from her friend’s disappearance, her teacher Jonathan is forced to confront his own troubled past. Ivy Pochoda’s Visitation Street is a riveting literary mystery that explores the complex lives of those who yearn for escape, no matter the cost.
About the Author
Meet Ivy Pochoda, a talented author known for her critically acclaimed novel Visitation Street, published by Ecco / Dennis Lehane Books. Her incredible work has earned her many accolades, including being chosen as an Amazon Best Book of the Month, Amazon Best Book of 2013, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection.
Ivy’s writing has been featured in various publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Huffington Post, Self, and House & Garden.
In 2009, Ivy published her first novel, The Art of Disappearing, through St. Martin’s Press. She holds a BA from Harvard College in Classical Greek and an MFA from Bennington College in fiction.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Ivy now resides in downtown Los Angeles with her husband, Justin Nowell.
Editoral Review
In her 2013 novel, Visitation Street, Ivy Pochoda explores the intricate lives of two teenage girls from a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood as they struggle to navigate adolescence while facing the harsh realities of their surroundings. Pochoda draws upon her own experiences growing up in the area to create a hauntingly realistic depiction of an often overlooked corner of New York City.
The novel begins with the sudden disappearance of Val, one of the girls, after a late-night swim in the East River. The community is thrown into chaos as they try to unravel the mystery of what happened to her, and the novel’s main characters, Fadi and Cree, are forced to confront their own fears, desires, and vulnerabilities as they become entangled in the investigation.
With a keen eye for detail and a talent for building suspense, Pochoda weaves a complex web of relationships and secrets that keeps the reader engaged until the very end. The strength of Visitation Street lies in its complex characterizations and nuanced portrayals of life in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood.
Pochoda is not content to present her characters as simple archetypes; instead, she delves into their psyches to uncover the multiple layers of their experiences. Fadi, for example, is a Lebanese immigrant who dreams of a better life, but is forced to confront the realities of discrimination and poverty.
Cree, on the other hand, is a highly intelligent and ambitious young woman who is haunted by the choices she has made in the past. Despite its many strengths, Visitation Street is not without its flaws.
Pochoda’s prose can be heavy-handed at times, and the pacing of the novel is uneven, with certain sections dragging on while others move too quickly. Additionally, the novel’s ending feels somewhat rushed and unsatisfying, with loose ends left untied and questions unanswered.
Despite these limitations, however, Visitation Street is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that is well worth reading. Pochoda’s explorations of race, class, gender, and identity are timely and relevant, and her vivid descriptions of Red Hook make the neighborhood come alive on the page.
Fans of literary fiction and contemporary social commentary will find much to admire here. Overall, I would highly recommend Visitation Street to anyone looking for a thoughtful and engaging novel that challenges our assumptions about ourselves and the world around us.
While it may not be perfect, it is a remarkable achievement from a talented and promising author. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this novel a solid eight.
