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Summary: city tales
Review:
BETWEEN TWO RIVERS is like an Advent Calendar -- you peel away the covers & peek into the complex lives within. The concierge with his memories, his work & his prejudices. The young widow whose tropical rainforest honeymoon had been the apex of her life, whose husband, upon returning to America, had become unfaithful. The beautiful cleaning girl who makes the dangerous mistake of going home too late. The old Luftwaffe POW pilot with nothing now but memories. The gracious & mischievous opera singer. As well as others who work in the World Trade Center & the modern denizen: the rock diva & the clothes designer.
& in the end, suddenly on an enchanting September morning, everyone's life will change as the nearby World Trade Center's Twin Towers are attacked & demolished.
Rebeccasreads recommends BETWEEN TWO RIVERS for those living in big cities. If you don't, it will give you an idea of who are those people up there in those towers of cement & glass.
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Summary: "Between Two Rivers" Will Inspire Generations
Review: "Between Two Rivers" is a mesmerizing novel. It depicts the lives of the diverse residents of Echo Terrace, a condiminium in lower Manhatten, concluding with the events of September 11, 2001.Nicholas Rinaldi is a knowledgable and sensitive writer, as evidenced in his numerous historical allusions, his detailed descriptions, his command of language and use of foreign terms, his philosophical speculations, and more. His portrayal of human thoughts and emotions gives his characters life--life that is fictitious yet real; strange yet familiar. Despite its complex characters, images and themes, the novel exudes a simplicity that makes it highly accessible and easy to read. This is one of the many remarkable aspects of this work. Towards the end of the novel, we join the characters and relive the tragedy of 9/11 in Rinaldi's vivid representation of that unforgettable day. Nonetheless, the author's words inspire us with hope and optimism. Throughout the novel, Rinaldi's intelligent humor is entertaining and uplifting, even in the darkest of pages.
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Summary: Rinaldi just keeps getting better and better......
Review: Between Two Rivers : A Novel is Nicholas Rinaldi's third novel. I thought his previous novel, The Jukebox Queen of Malta, was one of the better books of the year in 2000. Rinaldi has followed up that success with another blockbuster novel. Set in a Battery Park condo, Between Two Rivers is an expertly woven quilt of a novel that brilliantly illuminates the subtle bonds that develop between people who, by chance or by choice, happen to live together. The story revolves around one Farro Fescu, the inimitable Romanian concierge, who watches with keen eyes the comings and goings of the intriguing inhabitants of Echo Terrace, as the building is called. The building's name itself conjures up the themes that permeate this book-memory and shared experience. It is through this wonderfully energetic and nosy concierge that Mr. Rinaldi introduces the other residents, each with a wonderfully engaging and, often, enigmatic story to tell. The condo's residents mirror the ethnic, intense and farcical nature of New York. Although a novel in format, the construction of the book approached that of a collection of short stories in some respects as Rinaldi explores the inner workings and motivations of each character, but he always segues adroitly back into novel mode as he approaches the interrelationships and dynamics of the Echo Terrace's emotional and interrelational ecology. This is a book with first rate characters, elegant writing, dynamic construction and, ultimately, a book that provides one with a tremendous sense of satisfaction. Rinaldi just gets better and better. We can only hope he has many mode books in him.
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Summary: a novel of characters
Review: Between Two Rivers is something different from the usual adventure story or chick lit, a novel that really invests in characters and how they change over time. It’ll be a long while before I forget about the tenants of Echo Terrace, from the all-knowing concierge to the dying frozen-food magnate in the penthouse. And the writing is as smooth as silk.
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Summary: "Life is a high-pressure process, it's all raw turbulence"
Review: Big, bold, and totally ambitious, Between Two Rivers is the kind of book that one can totally become adrift in. Full of eccentric, puzzling characters, and unrelenting in its portrayal of a city undergoing profound threats, the novel is a rich, vibrant tapestry of life, death, history, and the metaphysical. More character that plot driven, Between Two Rivers' narrative arc revolves around three important events: the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the prosperity of the United States in the early nineties, the bombing of the World trade Center in 1993, and the terrible events of September 11th 2001.
We follow the eponymous lives of several characters that live in Echo Terrace - just a few minutes walk from the World Trade Centre. Echo Terrace is a modern luxury apartment building, "from top to bottom the solid fifteen story structure clad in a maudlin skin of grey green and granite, and rows of balconies forming a monotonous grid that reveals nothing of the luxury inside." In Echo Terrace, rich and poor come together as one in a kind of microcosm of humanity that is watched over by the busybody Romanian concierge Farro Fescu. Fescu is the novel's titular protagonist, who is deeply observant, and has a sense of paternal proprietary towards the 15-story condominium.
The novel opens with Fescu's observations on the tenants and gradually the reader is irrevocably pulled into their lives. Characters struggle to find meaning and purpose, slowly weaving a vivid tapestry while enlivening the Manhattan street grid, from which there are memorable encounters. Along the way there are somber times for the tenants of Echo Terrace, but the tragedies and difficulties that afflict them - the cancer and the car accidents - ensure that no person is disconnected from any other, and love, tolerance and a coming together in times of adversity balance their respective tragedies.
There's Harry Falcon, a cancer-ridden king of the frozen food industry, who is three times divorced, wealthy, bitter, and heavily involved with the high-class prostitute Maria Gracia Mono. There's retired Luftwaffe pilot Karl Vogel, who thinks Hitler was a giant "historical mistake" - he pines in obscurity with memories of the Second World War. Muhta Saad is an Iraqi spice merchant and habitual philanderer, and he has a son named Abdul who is studying to become a mortician, while also falling in love with the conspicuously non-Moslem actress, Angela Crespi. There's Angela's Aunt, Nora Abernooth, who keeps animals in her apartment, and pines for her dead husband. There's also Theo Tattafruge, a plastic surgeon specializing in sex reassignment, who reminisces about his trip to New Guinea, while fantasizing about the music of Vivaldi.
There are many other beautifully drawn characters with admirable and enviable range and ambition and Rinaldi cleverly relies on one character at a time to provide the point-of-view for a fact-based version of events. Between Two Rivers is undoubtedly concerned with how we might experience a changing reality that includes history and memory, conflict and harmony, and the potential beauty of kindness, no matter the assault of unfriendly times. Questions of history, economics, politics, the clash of cultures, and growing older are accomplished with a deft hand and an eminently readable style. It's a style built to sustain a big, sweeping narrative, on a humungous, and daring canvas. Wholly original and richly imagined Between Two Rivers turns out to be lovable and admirable - an absolutely stunning achievement. Mike Leonard August 04.
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Summary: i want more!
Review: I found this book so enthralling because of the characters...they allowed the reader to feel the horror of the towers collapsing in a way that the news can never. And for that i say I want more from this author!
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Summary: The best book of 2004
Review: I read a lot, and while I come across many excellent novels there are few that I would hasten to call a masterpiece. This novel however falls into that category. Nicholas Rinaldi has crafted a world inside the walls of NYC's Echo Terrace like no other, and oh what characters he has created. This is a magical, haunting, exceptional novel that is truly deserving of nothing less than a five star review. Do yourself a favour, read this book, it's amazing.
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Summary: Library Reading
Review: If a picture paints a thousands words, and if a thousand words paints a picture, this novel, however depressing it is...character wise...does portray personalities that I wouldn't make friends with at any juncture in life. The book's beginning was creative and interestig, then as it progressed into characterizations it got depressing and boring. I moved forward half way into the text and decided not to read the second half. It went back to the library ASAP, where I checked out Sleeping With Schubert by Donnie Marson. This is the book you shoud read instead of Between Two What?
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Summary: A surprise for me
Review: Not knowing anything about this book, I bought it on a whim. Partly because of the cover, partly because the bookseller had turned it out on the shelf. Partly because I had watched up close the terrible events of that terrible day. But I was not disappointed by this taut and at times poetic tale of the condo dwellers, each with their peculiar fates. The novel is not about 9/11, and it is not mawkish or sentimental. Nor is there anything exploitive about the treatment of the World Trade Center tragedy. Instead, I found it very life affirming. The characters were vivid and powerful and easily formed themselves in my imagination. The writing is elegant and simple, and reading the book took no effort at all. I wondered where Rinaldi had come up with the names of some (all?) of the characters, which sounded improbable to me and a little distracting. But that's just me. All in all, I would highly recommend this as a rewarding read.
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Summary: At the Peak of his Artistry
Review: Readers of Nicholas Rinaldi's earlier work already know him as a writer of beautifully crafted, emotionally complex poems and novels. But "Between Two Rivers" is more--interrelated and multi-faceted stories of New Yorkers that are often humorous, occasionally horrifying, but always profoundly human. In "Between Two Rivers" we encounter a literary artist at the peak of his powrs.
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