Brooklyn, 2007. Alicia is 26 years old and feels like she’s stuck. She’s doing what is expected of her rather than what she wants to do. She’s saving for a wedding she’s not sure if she wants. But one night she attends a party in the Fort Greene neighborhood, and her life changes dramatically.
Alicia finds herself drawn into the orbit of her magnetic neighbor, an up and coming designer who calls herself La Garza. Alicia watches her neighbor from across the street, marveling at the epic parties she throws. When Alicia is invited into La Garza’s world, she finally realizes what she wants and what she’s been missing.
The setting of the book is as much a part as a character. Brooklyn in 2007 is on the verge of gentrification. The Barclays Center is about to be built, pushing out some of the neighborhood’s oldest residents. The country is already feeling the effects of a possible recession, but hope seems to be coming—in the form of Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
La Garza is a new type of Gatsbyesque character, but she retains the almost mythical reverence in which people hold her. She projects greatness and challenges others to seek it on their own, but you can tell she is her own fragile creation. Alicia is the book’s Nick Carraway, observing and commenting on the society surrounding La Garza, but truly powerless to fix the disasters that seem inevitable.
I definitely found this book to be intriguing, but I never connected with the characters as I did with Gonzalez’s other books. I did like this fresh retake on the Gatsby myth, and really felt that she made Fort Greene an important character.
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