The Crazyladies of Pearl Street by Trevanian

The Crazyladies of Pearl Street Reviews

• 
  Marcie

  After reading other reviews of this book on this website, I feel that I must defend it. First of all, no one should read this book UNLESS they are a Trevanian fan.
  
  To not know him first as the author of "Shibumi," the greatest spy novel ever written, or to not know of his fights with publishers and refusals to do interviews and publicity signings, or to not know that he wrote in different genre under different pseudonyms (which were often an intriguing connecting puzzle of characters' names in other books), is to not understand the wonder of this autobiography. Trevanian spent his life being the elusive enigma, refusing to allow anyone to know anything about him.
  
  And his last gift to us before he died? An autobiography. But of course, in any discussion, he's going to refer to it as fiction -- hiding is his reaction of habit. Thus I understand the confusion of some readers..."what is this fiction-memoir-thing, telling us the story of living in a slum in the 1930s that we've all heard a million times before?"
  
  No, this is the fascinating companion material explaining the sources for all of Trevanian's creative choices in all of his works. It's the last rant of your favorite college professor, completely off-topic, on the last day of school. It's the last conversation with an old friend, charming and wry, over a last glass of wine.
  
  Trevanian's autobiography inspires me to write a novel. Much more importantly, it inspires me to let go of every disappointment, every transgression, every righteous indignant anger I have ever felt. Life is just too short. And isn't that what an autobiography should do?
  
  
  
• 
  Ayse_

  This book is an autobiographical novel about Trevanian's (Rodney William Whitaker (June 12, 1931 – Dec 14, 2005)) childhood (mostly) and also adulthood. His father was a con-man who never took care of his family. He tricked his family and disowned Trevanian and his sister at a very young age. Their mother; a very strong and independent character was inadequate in providing for her children however hard she tried. They lived through the times of depression, WWII and turbulent post-war era. Always poor and restless; always making self-destructive choices, never managing to cling to what they have for too long.
  
  Its interesting to see through the eyes of a very smart child Trevanian; a family legacy of generation after generation of wounded parents, who kept heaping their burden on their kids; the kids who get badly crushed and injured being too young and defensless for that kind of weight and almost never recover.
  
  Its a very sad story, with many interesting anecdotes from a community, where mostly strong women trying to survive the madness of the time are shaping the world of the ones around them.
• 
  Leslie

  So....when I was young I hazarded asking my father to talk about his life growing up as a boy in Alabama. He kind of looked at me in a distracted way and kept walking right out of the room, muttering "What do you want to know?"- his voice tinged with irritation.
  
  Well, this book does just the opposite. Trevanian's story is narrated by a young boy growing up in Albany, New York, on the "Irish slum" block of Pearl Street in the 1930s and 40s. It's quite good, but just so long-winded to me, like someone taking a nostalgic journey, writing down every little thing remembered so preciously. I just couldn't read every single word without glazing over and falling out of my chair. I needed these 367 pages to be more like 187.
  
  "See, what had happened was...."
  many many years ago I had a friend who raved about Trevanian's book,
  Shibumi. I've never read it; but on a trip to the library I espied TREVANIAN in caps on the red spine of The Crazyladies of Pearl Street and plucked it off the shelf.
  
  This book was published in 2005, the year that Trevanian died, so, this being his final novel, I imagine that he DID take that nostalgic trip back into the past. His writing is very engaging, and I'd still like to read Shibumi and
  The Eiger Sanction. Any Trevanian fans out there who would like to share their favorites by him?
• 
  Sonia Gomes

  The Summer of Katya had left such an impression on me! I wanted more of Trevanian and with such an evocative title as 'The Crazyladies of Pearl Street! I was dragged into it. Dragged!
  
  Now I understand, 'All that glitters is not gold'. Page after page of events, details and more details in such a very listless manner. I understand that this his Autobiography but...After falling asleep a couple of times, this book was not for me...
  
  So little time and so many books. Sorry Trevanian Summer of Katya was beautiful, but 'The Crazyladies of Pearl Street'....You cannot win all the time.
• 
  korey

  Man this one was a struggle. I so wanted to like it since it's a story of a boy growing up in the slums of Albany during the Depression and WWII, but it was a total BORE. There was just too much superfluous narrative and not enough dialog or character development. But, what dialog there is was great, I wanted more! I actually skipped and skimmed my way through the last 1/3 of the book - which I never do.
• 
  Douglas Gibson

  I recommend my 2nd read of 2023, Trevanian’s “The Crazies Ladies of Pearl Street,” to lovers of well written fiction and coming of age stories. If you enjoyed Betty Smith’s. “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” Gloria Naylor’s “The Women of Brewster Place,” or Henry Roth’s, “Call it Sleep,” you will be right at home with the type of storytelling here. If you haven’t read those three books- add them to your list immediately.
  This one is not for those that need a dense plot, as I stated, it is a coming of age story. The story focuses on our protagonist, Jean-Luc LaPointe, who was abandoned by his father, as he grows up in 30’s New York City with his sister, and his eccentric mother. His voice is what makes the book so charming and ultimately engrossing. His narration looks back on his childhood with a perfect mix of childhood innocence and adult cynicism. One page will have you laughing at his childlike imagination, while a few pages later your heart will break for some of the injustices the family suffers all because of his description of those events.
  As Jean-Luc takes us through his early years we remember that there really is no such thing as “the good old days." Times in our history have always been tough, admittedly more for some groups than others; what this novel does is show you how one family handles these conflicts. Along the way the book makes strong statements about the role of children, poverty, racism, and feminism.
  (Disclaimer- this was my Book Club’s pick. I had never heard of the author or the book before- but I am glad I have now!)
  
• 
  Reid

  Quite a nice book, if a bit snarky, if you know what I mean; which is to say, the author is a bit high on himself, and sometimes his judgments of the world and the people in it are hypercritical, simplistic, and not truly on target. However, I was never less than engaged by this book, and especially relished the background material on the website he published specifically to accompany the book. Don't worry, the book stands alone, but if you want more information on any of the footnotes, the website is fun. Oh, one more little criticism: it becomes quite evident that this is more memoir than novel, and the pretense is a tad annoying. Still, it is a very good read, with vividly and lovingly portrayed characters, and I would recommend it to anyone.
• 
  thewanderingjew

  The Crazyladies of Pearl Street, Trevanian, author; Lee Leoncavallo, narrator
  I loved reading this book. I loved its simple presentation of life with all its warts and foibles in what could only be called a simpler time. I loved the fact that the main characters never truly gave up. Most of the characters rose above their own defeats and challenged the world again; even if they never succeeded, they kept on trying. This was a country of hope, for most of its travelers.
  The book is about a different time, a time that had problems, but in retrospect with a comparison of today’s, they were more easily addressed.
  This is a book that is reminiscent of the author’s life. He had a deadbeat dad, a conman who abandoned his mother and children. He liked his drink, and alcohol was a massive problem for the poor immigrant, Irish population. They came to America in poverty. They came with dreams and hopes. Often they ended up with nightmares, but the mom in this novel, and the mom in Trevanian's real life, never gave up hope, even when she succumbed to sadness or sickness, she always rose again. Still, she was filled with her own problems some self inflicted because she was opinionated and harbored many prejudices. The Jews were out to cheat her, the neighbors were looking down at her, when the butcher was kind to her she was sure he wanted to get something in return. Because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and declared war, she tolerated nothing Japanese.
  The book introduces Jean Luc La Pointe who tells the story. He is a very precocious and super bright little boy with a very high IQ. He stupefies some of his teachers with his knowledge. At six years old, his maturity is far beyond his years. His man/nun imaginings, his conversations with his teachers and his philosophy of life will have the reader laughing. How he sneaks into the movie theater will remind some readers of their own shenanigans. Some of the superstitions will be nostalgic, like deaths occur in threes. It will arouse memories of stores that gave credit, keeping records in black/white covered notebooks. It was a time when people were called names that were disparaging, but no one would get shot over it. Kids riding bikes and delivering papers are also memories of days gone by.
  Jean Luc protects his younger sister Anne-Marie. He is his mother’s right hand and confidant because his father has abandoned them. She leans heavily on him and he is aware of his burden, but his love for his mother and his own kind heart propel him to always support, protect and defend her. His mother often embarrasses him because she dresses with too much panache or butchers the English language with backwards idioms, like believe me, you or it will be a hot day in Hell. She trusts no one because she has been betrayed, often, and harbors deep prejudices and superstitions that guide her behavior. Still, she is independent, chooses her own style and defies the norms of the day, unconcerned about what people will say. She is kind. She is playful. He loves her and she loves her children.
  The story begins when his mother takes her children from their home in Lake George, to Albany, New York. After a four year absence in which his sister was born, his father suddenly resurfaces and sends for them, but he is a conman, and once again, he disappoints them. He leaves a note saying he is going out to find a green cake. The apartment is decorated wildly for St. Patrick’s day. He never comes back, leaving them penniless, struggling to fend for themselves in a place they are complete strangers.
  Although there is the occasional kind person, his mother always believes there is an ulterior motive and refuses help when it is offered unless she is at her wit’s end. She believes that more often than not, there is a person waiting in the wings to take advantage of them, and she is often proven right. Albany is a microcosm of the world when it comes to small towns and immigrants trying to make ends meet.
  The book takes place in a time when the world is trying to come out of a depression and is dealing with world problems and a coming war in Europe. It shows the depths of depravity that some will go to in order to take advantage of others. It shows the depth of love some feel for others and the extent of what they will suffer to keep that love alive. It deals with the unendurable pain some feel from their hopelessness, from their wartime experiences, and from their emotional and physical stress. It does not shy away from the anti-Semitism of the time or the anti-immigrant atmosphere. The term Jew someone down is introduced as a cliché used in negotiations. It was a time when people were called names and even though they were disparaging, it didn’t cause violence. Still, because of the humor interjected so often and so naturally, the book is not heavy at all.
  The country was deeply nationalistic and when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the citizens rose to the occasion. The volunteers couldn’t be processed fast enough. However, there was a dark side to the country, as well. The welfare system was corrupt, so were the ward heelers, the Tammany bosses who provided for the new immigrants more quickly. They also paid them for their votes which was an accepted practice, since most would have voted that way anyway. The political system was corrupt then, but the purchasing and dishonest election system was not as sophisticated as it is today, and the vote buying was well known. The corrupt elections were accepted, in much the same way as today, though for different reasons, the corruption and cheating is being overlooked. The mob is still in control of the swamp.
  Every problem is dealt with in a way that shows life simply went on as everyone adjusted to each new issue as best they could. Those that didn’t often took drastic measures, even taking their own lives. This was a time when people either had money for something or didn’t. Credit cards didn’t exist. If a shopkeeper wouldn’t show compassion, the family was doomed. There were some people who were easier marks than others. Some turned to alcohol. Some were too illiterate to do much of anything but manual labor. Some were jealous, some too superstitious. Survival was difficult on a multitude of levels.
  The real name of this author, who wrote under several pseudonyms is Rodney William Whitaker. The book is close to an autobiographical picture of his life. It is about the kind of life his family had, the poverty, the shame, the prejudices, the superstitions, their struggles to survive. It is about his coming of age, his finding love and his ultimate success.
  The narrator of this book was superb, using tone and expression to identify each character uniquely and to emphasize each moment appropriately.
• 
  Carol

  THE CRAZY LADIES OF PEARL STREET was, for me, a happy trip down memory lane. With references to some of the radio programs I remember during the golden days of radio...a time when one could escape the boredom of hot summer days by listening to the adventures of "The Green Hornet" or "The Shadow", when you could ride with the "Lone Ranger and Tonto", listen to “Buster Brown” or be scared out of your wits by "Inner Sanctum's" squeaking door or sit in a darkened room listening to the footsteps on “Dragnet.” This story recalls a time before television and computer games when one need only an imagination and an inexpensive radio to enjoy hours of entertainment. I'm just old enough to remember those days, but even if you are not, you still might enjoy this semi-autobiographical look back at an earlier time in our country's history.
  
  Set in Albany, New York in the years prior to and following WWII this story is a retrospective look at a simpler time when most people were "poor financially" but "rich in spirit". Narrated by Jean-Luc Pointe, it tells of his life growing up in a poverty stricken neighborhood with his emotionally strong but physically weak mother Ruby and his sister Anne-Marie as they struggle to survive when his "charming, con-man" father deserts them yet again. Luc is forced to become the man of the house at the tender age of six, a position that he alternately relishes and resents. Filled with memorable characters like Mrs. Cox - the teacher who first recognizes Luc's talent for story-telling; Mr. Kane - the Jewish grocer who extends credit, and provides the luxury of a "pay phone" (the only telephone in the neighborhood); Mrs. McGivney the lonely woman who spends her days tending to her catatonic husband and who relies on Luc for her only companionship; Ben the cowboy who lives upstairs; and other peripheral characters like Aunt Lorna, her slimy husband and his shady associates – they all add to the tone and texture of this beautiful word tapestry.
  
  If you appreciate wonderfully descriptive writing and are subject to bouts of nostalgia then Trevanian is the writer for you and THE CRAZY LADIES OF PEARL STREET is a reading experience that will enfold you like a warm cozy blanket. I loved it.....
  
• 
  Cori

  I enjoyed this book. I don't know why it's not more popular as a local publication in the Capital District. It's fun to read about such familiar areas as Albany, Troy & Lake George during a time gone-by. I'd recommend this to anyone who would enjoy reading about the Capital District or anyone who enjoys reading about the experiences of others. This novel is autobiographical about a young boy living on South Pearl somewhere between Clinton and Livingston just before and during WWII. He tells of the hardships living in a poor household run by a single-mother; his fears about his future and hers; the social fabric of his poor neighborhood; the financial and familial disappointments he and his mother and sister suffered time and time again; the idea that "one day our ship will come in"; and so much more.
  
  The author went on to live in France where he died in 2005. This was his last published book.
• 
  wally

  this was the first story by trevanian that i picked up and it wasn't the last. an entertaining read and subsequent reads of all things trevanian have me asking the question: how'd this guy get around so much?
  
  jean-luc lapointe, his little sister and their mother in albany new york. 1936. back in the day. jean-luc's mother is a hoot, believe me you! a phrase she uses. they're all waiting for their ship to come in. the old man has abandoned them and life is hard. things happen. a wonderful cast of characters and all of them come to life through the eyes of jean-luc. enjoyable read.
• 
  Ginger Gritzo

  He led an interesting life and introduced me to a few new words.
• 
  Cathryn Conroy

  This is a memoir written as a novel, and like many memoirs—even though it's supposed to be a novel—it has a tendency to get bogged down in the minutia. While quite a bit of it is laugh-out-loud funny and really quite engrossing to read, too much of it is boring and longwinded.
  
  Written by Trevanian (a pseudonym for Rodney William Whitaker), the book follows the life of Jean-Luc LaPointe, a smart and precocious boy known as Luke to his friends. Luke, his mother, and his sister Anne-Marie live on North Pearl Street in Albany, New York from 1936 to 1945. It is the Great Depression, but the people who live on North Pearl are far poorer than most. The street is considered an Irish slum. Every penny matters when the welfare check is only $7.27 a week. Luke's deadbeat father stayed with Luke's mom just long enough to father two children; they haven't seen or heard from him in years. Told in the first person by Luke, this coming-of-age story is essentially a series of (long) vignettes about the family's intense poverty, creative ways to earn money, the Roman Catholic church, teachers and nuns, the movies and music of the time, and the "crazyladies" who live on the street.
  
  The story really is interesting in that it portrays an important part of American history from the point of view of one hard-hit family. But the meandering and twisting narrative may lose all but the most devoted readers, and that's really a shame because better editing would have fixed this.
  
  A bonus (of sorts): This may be a novel, but it has footnotes. Oddly, they are only available online for download. I was curious enough to go to the author's website and download the file. Well, no wonder the publisher didn't want to include them with the book. These aren't footnotes! They are essays—70 pages in all on such esoteric (and sort of, kind of related to the book) topics of 1930s filmmaking, Indian vs. Native American, the educational training of teachers, IQ tests, how to expertly chew a pencil, Edward R. Murrow, and many more.
  
• 
  George

  NOT MY 10¢-GLASS OF BEER.
  
  “…when I stepped into that hall I drew my first breath of that medley of mildew, Lysol, ancient grease, rotting woodwork, sweat, rat droppings, coal dust, baby urine and boiled
  cabbage...the residue of a hundred and fifty years of poverty and hopelessness, damp and eternal in the nostrils.” (p. 8)
  
  The Crazyladies of Pearl Street, by Trevanian, is a depressing novel about unlikable people; out of the ‘life’s a bitch and then you die’ genre. Why would I ever choose to read such tripe?
  
  Perhaps it was the $1.99 on-line, bargain price; and the really terrific title. I kept waiting for the crazy ladies to make an appearance—I could have abided ‘crazy’—but all that showed up where desperate, broken folks in an environment of dysfunction and squalor.
  
  There might be some nuggets of nostalgia (e.g. vacuum-tube radios), for some of us really old readers, hidden in these pages somewhere. But, unless you happen to miss the miseries of the Great Depression and World War II, they’re very well hidden.
  
  Recommendation: This is the first novel by Trevarian that I have read. Thankfully, it will also be the last. It shouldn’t even make your ‘to read’ list.
  
  “But when he returned to sign up, the recruiting offices were so hungry for bullet-blocking meat that they didn’t look very carefully into a man’s past.” (pp. 276-277).
  
  Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition, 386 pages
• 
  Fred Forbes

  Maybe you can blame it on Don Winslow. I had pretty much forgotten Trevaian whose thrillers I enjoyed - The Eiger Sanction, the Loo Sanction, Shibumi, etc. until Don Winslow, another great thriller writer, with the blessing of the estate, produced a prequel to Shibumi and did an excellent job. What ever happened to Trevanian?, wondered I, and a bit of research showed he passed in 2005 and I realized that I had not read his last book, this one, a semi-autobiographical novel of growing up in the tenements of Albany in the mid '30's to mid '40s during the end of the depression and World War II.
  
  I'm a fan of coming of age stories and this one is a classic, taking place in the decade before my birth so it added some perspective to my early life. Typical Trevanian, the prose is amazing, the characterization spot on, and the pacing just right. Sometimes it is tough imagining a pre-teen having that level of perception and that precise a vocabulary but the boyhood tendencies and behavior hit the mark. A truly enjoyable reading experience.
  
  But wait, there's more! I noticed some small footnote numbers spread through the book which sent me searching toward the front where it is explained that cybernotes were available on the website. 70 pages of them, many expository essays, some lagniappe for the faithful, I guess. Some of the comments as enjoyable as the book itself. Enjoy!
• 
  Paige Witbeck

  This book was a beautifully written and captivating coming of age story. This was a more challenging read for me because it has long chapters and, sometimes, pages and pages of description without any dialogue. Many times it reminded me of a high school summer reading book (and if that had been the case, I certainly wouldn’t have read it.) This isn’t a fast or easy read, but it was fascinating, richly detailed, and I learned a lot. Jean-Luc was an observant narrator who captured his upbringing on Pearl Street in the most memorable way- I won’t be forgetting this book any time soon!
• 
  Karen

  The title of this book is mis-leading and would have been a better book had it been more about the "crazy ladies living on Pearl Street" rather than about a boy telling his story of growing up in the slums of Albany, New York during WWII. Parts of it held your interest...such as learning about the day to day details of life during the depression and war while living in such extreme poverty but the book was just a struggle to get through most of it.
• 
  Colleen

  4.5 stars
  I really enjoyed this author’s writing style.
  I thought his word and phrasing choices created vivid images. I listened to it on Audible and really liked narrator as well.
• 
  Carol

  Not so much about crazy ladies, but there are a few in the neighborhood where the author grew up in the 1930s and 40s. He describes his childhood living with his mother and sister in a slum in Albany, New York. A captivating and well written tale. Perhaps I’ll check out some of his other books.
• 
  Nina

  Lacking in any kind of plot, this was a litany of depression-era woes that mostly served to demonstrate the author's knowledge of 1930's pop culture. It was so like an SNL skit, that I expected each paragraph of misery to with "..and we LIKED it!" It lacked the veritas of Angela's Ashes and the emotions of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which just left it as a pseudo memoir of a poor kid.
• 
  Chris

  For some reason, I want desperately to like Trevanian. As he says in a note at the beginning of The Crazyladies of Pearl Street, "The Trevanian Buff is a strange and wonderful creature: an outsider, a natural elitist, not so much a cynic as an idealist mugged by reality, not just one of those who march to a different drummer, but the solo drummer in a parade of one.” That pretty much describes me...at least the "parade of one" part...and I am a fallen idealist, too.
  
  His first book,
  The Eiger Sanction, with its shocking pink dust jacket ablazing, struck me as a funny inside joke: a thriller posing as a cynical attack on the typically poor quality writing of the genre. (The surprisingly realistic climbing scenes grabbed my attention, too.) It worked perfectly, even though almost nobody got the joke, as Trevanian knew would be the case, rightfully lording up in his tower.
  
  His immediate follow-up
  The Loo Sanction, with its super bright orange dust jacket, took that premise too far: he delivered a book obscure with indecipherable allusions. It also used certain stereotypes which are no longer funny, only embarrassing, which years later will torpedo a book connected to the wrong side of history. Since he admitted writing it to capitalize on the success of The Eiger Sanction, critics howled as Trevanian went to the bank.
  
  That put an I thought permanent hold on my drive to read his other books. (People say that
  Shibumi is excellent.) Then Crazyladies turned up in a stack of used books. Here was a chance for rehabilitation of my awkward apprection of Trevanian.
  
  Not so good. It's an excessively detailed account of himself as a child and teenager during the Great Depression and WW2. Two types of readers will enjoy it: 1) The "Trevanian Buff"; and 2) A historian or collector of Depression and war years cultural trivia and memorabilia. Indeed, I remember very well my grandparents' preserved food and gas ration books, vacuum tube radios, black Emerson finger-amputating metal electric fans...all very interesting artifacts, but hardly material for incisive fiction. The book's frame is built on material objects which supports a heavy narrative 100% centered on the boy Trevanian. I grew tired of him, of the run down apartment he lived in, and the really not so "crazylady" neighbors. One word summarizes nicely this book: self-indulgent. At the end it becomes too sentimental.
  
  So I'll keep his first two books on my shelves because of their glaring first-edition 1970s dustjackets, but I'm done with Trevanian.
  
  Unless Shibumi should drop out of the sky onto my overflowing desk someday. I hope it has an eye-catching dust jacket.
  
• 
  Sandie

  THE CRAZY LADIES OF PEARL STREET was, for me, a happy trip down memory lane. With references to some of my favorite programs during the golden days of radio…a time when one could escape the boredom of hot summer days by listening to the adventures of “The Green Hornet” or “The Shadow”, when you could ride with the “Lone Ranger and Tonto”, go on “A Date with Judy” or be scared out of your wits by “Inner Sanctum’s” squeaking door or sit in a darkened room listening to “Lights Out”. This story recalls a time before television and computer games when one need only an imagination and an inexpensive radio to enjoy hours of entertainment. I’m just old enough to remember those days, but even if your not, you are still sure to enjoy this semi-autobiographical look back at an earlier time in our country’s history.
  
  Set in Albany, New York in the years prior to and following WWII this story is a retrospective look at a simpler time when most people were “poor financially” but “rich in spirit”. Narrated by Jean-Luc Pointe, it tells of his life growing up in a poverty stricken neighborhood with his emotionally strong but physically weak mother Ruby and his sister Anne-Marie as they struggle to survive when his “charming, con-man” father deserts them yet again. Luc is forced to become the man of the house at the tender age of six, a position that he alternately relishes and resents. Filled with memorable characters like Mrs. Cox – the teacher who first recognizes Luc’s talent for story-telling, Mr. Kane – the Jewish grocer who extends credit, keeps track of purchases on “his slate”, and provides the luxury of a “pay phone” (the only telephone in the neighborhood), Mrs. McGivney the lonely woman who spends her days tending to her catatonic husband and who relies on Luc for her only companionship, Ben the cowboy who lives upstairs and other peripheral characters like Aunt Lorna, her slimy husband and his shady associates all add to the tone and texture of this beautiful word tapestry.
  
  If you appreciate wonderfully descriptive writing and are subject to bouts of nostalgia then Trevanian is the writer for you and THE CRAZY LADIES OF PEARL STREET is a reading experience that will fill enfold you like a warm cozy blanket and fill you up like a hearty meal.