livingmybookishlife
Edited•
🏢🏢 ARC REVIEW 🏢🏢GOWANUS CROSSING: A BROOKLYN BOYHOOD by Vincent Coppola
Publication date: June 9, 2026
When Henry Holt Books offered to send me a finished copy of GOWANUS CROSSING: A BROOKLYN BOYHOOD by Vincent Coppola, I jumped at the chance. My own memoir could be called Bensonhurst: A Brooklyn Girlhood, so it’s understandable that I would find connection with Coppola’s experiences.
Coppola tells his story through short vignettes heavy on fantastical characters that seem almost too contrived and stereotyped to be real. But, if you grew up in the Brooklyn of the 60s and 70s like I did, you would recognize them as the friends and family that populated your youth. Big personalities, creative monikers, and close proximity are the hallmarks of the large, close knit immigrant communities that made up Brooklyn at that time.
Coppola is a product of both his family and his neighborhood. A child of blue collar parents, he dreams of escaping and education is his ticket out. He reflects on the influence of the Catholic Church, parochial schools, the Mob, and the drug culture that was prevalent during that time. All of this felt very familiar to me.
The majority of this book felt like a walk down memory lane, yet it was the ending that revealed the underlying message of this memoir. GOWANUS CROSSING is a love letter and tribute to the place and people that formed the foundation upon which his life was built. You can take a person out of Brooklyn, but you can never take Brooklyn out of a person.
This will either be infinitely fascinating to those who enjoy The Godfather, The Lords of Flatbush, and Saturday Night Fever vibes or feel incredibly niche. I am obviously in the former category.
