(no subject)

[skygiants]

I'm on the early morning bus back to New York right now, so I may as well talk about a New York book I read recently that was really disappointingly un-New-York-ish: Joe Golem and the Drowning City, by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden.

I mean, it's a very pretty book! It's an illustrated novel -- Mike Mignola is the guy who does Hellboy, I think -- and it's about a plucky orphan girl trying to save her elderly kidnapped mentor who might be at risk of accidentally turning into a Lovecraftian monster, set in a steampunkish NYC in which lower Manhattan is underwater. This is where my problem is. There is a lot of emphasis placed on the idea that uptown Manhattan is high and dry and still living it up in a wealthy fashion, and lower Manhattan has been underwater since the 1930s and features an underclass of sad gondoliers, which, OK, those are ... super broad strokes with which to paint the social makeup of NYC (Harlem, anyone?) but sure, fine. BUT THEN the book is like "oh, and ... most of Brooklyn and Queens and the Bronx are underwater too, I guess? Enough so that they're pretty much irrelevant and nobody lives there anyway, anyway."

And here my suspension of disbelief ended and my irritable Brooklyn feelings surfaced, because NOPE, THAT'S NOT HOW IT WOULD GO. Long Island is a big island, guys! Most of it is probably less susceptible to natural disaster-induced flooding than upper Manhattan is! You can't just write off ALL the other boroughs because they don't fit as easily into your uptown/downtown metaphor! I mean, obviously you can, and they did, but you can't expect me not to spend the rest of the book mentally muttering about it.

...I mean, I feel like most people would probably pick this book up for the atmospheric horror-adventures and pretty illustrations? If so you're probably OK...

Comments

[pedanther]

Mike Mignola is indeed the guy who does Hellboy. Christopher Golden has also written a few Hellboy novels, among other things (he wrote the only Buffy tie-in novel I ever bothered reading, which I quite enjoyed and was kind of sad when the TV series jossed it).

For what it's worth, Wikipedia records that they were born and raised in, respectively, California and Massachusetts.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I finally remembered to look that up when I was writing this review, because I was going to be confused and baffled if either of them were from New York! I mean, I've probably also written things set in cities where I've never been that would enrage and/or horrify the actual inhabitants, so I can't judge too hard. And it's not like there's a dearth of good New York stories.

...but that's still really not how it would work.

[sovay]

Joe Golem and the Drowning City

I am sad. That's such a good title!

[skygiants]

I know! And the premise of a half-drowned New York would be SO GOOD if it ... bore any resemblance to the actual New York that I know and love.

[aberration]

If it weren't for the publishing date I'd wonder if this guy really misunderstood what happened in Manhattan after Sandy. THERE WAS A SUBSTATION EXPLOSION, THE WEST VILLAGE IS STILL FULL OF RICH PEOPLE.

On the other hand, there would be worse things than being a sad Brooklyn gondolier.

[skygiants]

THE WEST VILLAGE WILL ALWAYS BE FULL OF RICH PEOPLE. OK admittedly it probably wasn't in the 1930s.

I mean, I'd probably be happier as a ... happy ... Brooklyn gondolier ... but otherwise, yes, I accept your premise.