"This chronicle of New York City covers four "convulsive and consequential" years in its history, 1986 through 1989, an era that included the AIDS and crack epidemics, rolling corruption scandals, rising crime, and a giddy Wall Street high on junk bonds. The book tracks activists, artists, politicians, and tycoons—Larry Kramer, Spike Lee, Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump, among others—as they vie to make their marks, creating legacies still palpable today."
""Supposedly the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over but expect different results, but isn't that precisely what trying to get pregnant and failing is?" Caldwell, an essay writer and teacher, manages to be funny while handling tender subjects, such as infertility and the discovery that her husband has an extramarital sex addiction. "I knew something was wrong," she recounts. "I thought it was perhaps blocked fallopian tubes, and it ended up being sex workers in Geneva.""
A chronicle covers New York City from 1986 through 1989, a period marked by the AIDS and crack epidemics, rolling corruption scandals, rising crime, and a Wall Street high driven by junk bonds. Activists, artists, politicians, and tycoons—including Larry Kramer, Spike Lee, Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump—navigate competing ambitions that produce enduring urban legacies. A candid personal account recounts repeated attempts to conceive without IVF, the emotional toll of infertility, and the discovery of a spouse's extramarital sex addiction, mixing humor with tenderness. A layered debut novel juxtaposes Lagos in 2005 with Umumilo in 1905, tracing family ties, colonial encounters, and unresolved village debts.
#1980s-new-york #aids-and-crack-epidemics #infertility-and-marital-betrayal #colonial-era-nigerian-fiction
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