Dear Commons Community,

I would like to draw your attention to a new book just published entitled,  Our Bathtub Wasn’t in the Kitchen Anymore.   It is a coming-of-age tale that spans the 1950s and 1960s in the South Bronx and follows a young man through his journey from toddler to adulthood as he navigates family, friendship, and education. At times humorous, at other times gut-wrenching, his experiences at Catholic school, as a young athlete, and as a witness to street violence are laid out bare on its pages. The novel also explores the stories of families, some having lived in their small enclave for generations, forced to abandon their neighborhood as it undergoes societal upheaval.

While this book is a work of fiction, it includes many stories based on fact. The names of characters are fictional except for those in the author’s immediate family and closest friend. It is in part a memoir since the events in this book are based on personal recollections of fifty to sixty years ago, and the story lines approximate reality. The places mentioned, with a couple of exceptions, are real. Morris Avenue, 152nd Street and the Melford Club all existed, as described. Our Lady of Pity grammar school, Cardinal Spellman High School and Hunter College are real.

This book is essentially an individual’s story about growing up in the Bronx in the 1950s and 1960s, but also provides the reader with a window into a neighborhood and a culture that ceased to exist as the borough and the country underwent great demographic and societal changes. In this respect, social historians, sociologists, and urbanists might find some of the descriptions interesting and important.

It is available in the kindle version at amazon.com.

Because of the coronavirus, paper copies will be available later this month.

I highly recommend it!

Tony

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