Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Brownsville #27, 4/3/07

That's right, another post! After I posted yesterday, I read The Fatal Eggs and finished reading Brownsville. The Fatal Eggs was very good, definitely well written with an interesting story. Basically a scientist in the Soviet Union in the 1920s discovers a ray that makes animals become much larger and stronger, as well as more aggressive to the point of killing and eating each other and whatever else they can get to. Combine this with an inexplicable chicken plague and before you know it the Soviet government is using this "ray of life" on eggs to make the chicken stronger. Only they accidentally use snake and ostrich eggs. So it sort of becomes a monster movie at the end, but not really, because it's basically just satire the entire time. Science, the government, the press - Bulgakov attacks everyone. It's certainly not perfect but at 110 pages, I'd say worth reading. I'll probably check out some of his other work at some point.

Brownsville was good, I enjoyed the art style and subject matter but just felt that the plot was missing something. This seems to be confirmed by amazon.com reviews claiming that there is much better work on the subject of Jewish gangsters. But it served it's purpose in choosing my next Brooklyn neighborhood to go to, and I was off to the Brownsville Branch.

Branch: Brownsville
Location: 61 Glenmore Ave. at Watkins St.
Transport: R train to Atlantic Ave., 3 train to Rockaway Ave.
Book: Cobra II by Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor
Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2007

This branch was a bit of walk from the train, but it was a nice day, so I enjoyed it. Not like today's god-awful weather anyway. Brownsville was once a Jewish neighborhood, but these days it's mostly African-American. With it being so close to East New York (where apparently 25% of the crime in NYC occurs) I wasn't sure what to expect, but I actually found it to be a fairly bustling but also laid back area. Similar to the Walt Whitman Branch, this library is built right in the middle of multiple housing projects (though I'd imagine the library was there first, being built in 1914). There was plenty of open space and greenery, but I guess there's no escaping the generally bad vibes coming from housing projects, stemming primarily from building design. I'm pretty sure years ago someone told me about architects who designed low-cost housing that didn't feel so depressing, but their designs were rejected by cities for whatever reason. Of course I have no source on that whatsoever. That said, there were basketball courts right next to the library full of kids, and the feeling inside the library itself seemed to be an overall good mood. I saw an excellent chess game where the two players were basically trying to psych each other out.

The layout was confused me a bit, but I believe it was my own fault. It's another Carnegie building, though the upper floor/balcony seemed to be off limits to the public, but it took me a while to separate the adults section from the kids, and to find where the new books were. Then it turned out the book I wanted wasn't in the new section anyway. NBD. I took out Cobra II, which is apparently the definitive account of the war in Iraq, or so it claims. In any event I'm sick of this one thing dominating our news and elections and policy debates and not being informed enough about it. Plus the book only just came out in paperback and it was too heavy as a hardcover.

Pictures?



This one is of the general area, with the library in the background on the right side.



Tree, library, tower.



Aaaaaaand just the library.

Well this Cobra II is quite the tome, so it might be a while for me, but it might not, so, you know, keep checking. Commas.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wait, so Sylvester Stallone is fighting in Iraq? Sounds like a good read. Probably best read out loud.

DP said...

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 2, eclectic ballyhoo.

Anonymous said...

Brownsville was built in 1908. The Stone Ave/Mother Gaston Blvd branch was built in 1914.

Happy to hear that you felt there was a laid back atmosphere inside.

Thanks for stopping by.