Triburbia

Just a week or so ago I reviewed Motherland, a satirical exploration of parenthood and relationships in upper class Brooklyn. Triburbia is set just across the East River in Manhattan with a near identical premise and unfortunately I didn't enjoy this novel any more than I did the other.

Loosely connected by business, relationships or simply the school run, the men of Triburbia, whose creative professions allow them some flexibility, meet casually over breakfast to discuss film, sports and politics. Beginning with the Sound Engineer (113 North Moore), Greenfield reveals the histories of this group of men that includes a sculptor, a film producer, a writer, a career criminal, and the wives and daughters who share their lives.

With a mixture of first and third person narratives, it's disconcerting to start a chapter with a new character that has no identity except for an address and a profession. I was never entirely sure who was speaking, surprised once or twice to find it was a wife or even a daughter interjecting into the narrative. More properly a series of vignettes rather than a novel Triburbia has a disjointed feel, with no sure direction, though Greenfield does bring things full circle eventually.

There are one or two characters than inspire some sympathy, the father struggling with doing his best by his autistic son and the man who lost his first love and to his sister for example, but largely these men are shallow and self involved, fretting over real estate values, sex and social status. After the first few introductions, these men - their concerns and their ambitions - are all too similar. While Greenfield's observations may be wryly accurate they lack the insight I hoped for.

The wives are almost uniformly distant from their husbands, busy with work, childcare or in the case of at least one mother, an extensive drug habit. The vignettes that introduce the daughters of these men - the precocious, status aware Cooper and the ambitious Sadie in particular are a more interesting commentary on parenting in the enclave of the affluent.

I was perhaps more interested in the evolution of the Tribeca neighborhood than its residents. A once bohemian community full of shabby artist studios and warehouses the influx of wealthy financial types ordering "...renovations as vast and grand in scale as the construction of ocean liners..." ensure Tribeca is home to New York's newest millionaires. Still, a few artists remain like the puppeteer turned repairman (47 Lispenard) one of the lucky few in rent controlled loft spaces who by default is now privy to quality public schools for his children and a social status he cannot afford.

Greenfield, a resident of Tribeca, seems to have mined his own personal background for character inspiration and I suspect that his neighbours may also some recognise themselves within the pages of Triburbia. While I am sure the inhabitants of New York will delight in this portrait of their neighborhood, despite being largely unflattering, I suspect it will have little cultural relevance or interest outside of its environs.