Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn

by: Alice Mattison

Published by: Harper Perennial

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

The voice of Brooklyn is back with another complex and fascinating novel, Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn. Author Alice Mattison is known for her short story collections and novels. Among my favorite was The Book Borrower. Brooklyn is again the setting for this tale that alternates between 1989 and 2003.

In 1989, Constance “Con” Tepper comes to Brooklyn to mind her mother’s apartment and feed a constantly shedding cat. Gert has gone upstate to visit her dear friend, Marlene. On the first night, a stranger walks into the apartment and takes Con’s purse. Con is left with no keys and no money. She cannot leave the apartment; she is afraid to leave without locking the door. She cannot call a locksmith because she has no money to pay the bill. She turns to her only connection to the world, the phone.

In 2003, Con has moved into the apartment. She has divorced her husband, Jerry, but they remain somewhat good friends. Con has continued her work as a lawyer–not for a corporation, like in 1989, but for a non-profit. Marlene is coming to visit and Jerry is coming to crash on her couch will in New York. Con is also expecting her daughter, Joanna. The arrival of these three at one time throws Con into a state of depression and near regret.

The alternating time frames are easily to follow. In the 1989 sections, I was quite intrigued with the World War II-era letters from Marlene to Gert that Con found in the apartment. They provide an enigma to the relationship between Gert and Marlene. Con was fascinated with Marlene when she was a child and the letters shed a new light onto that secondary friendship. As for the 2003 sections, I was fascinated by the relics of a lost elevated train that was supposed to be a time-saver back in the 1920s.

I gave Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn a four-star rating because there is a major discrepancy in how Con meets Gert’s neighbor, Peggy, one of the novel’s secondary characters. Except for that issue, this is a story worth a reader’s time.

Armchair Interviews says: The surprises and twists add a deeper layer.