It’s the 1950s, and nar­ra­tor Jay deVenezia is embroiled in the cor­rup­tion in the Tremont sec­tion of the Bronx. He’s the son of an angry Jew­ish Ital­ian father, a cop who’s involved with mob boss­es; and a long-suf­fer­ing Bukha­ran Jew­ish moth­er. His broth­er, a junior thug, is con­stant­ly humil­i­at­ing and mis­treat­ing him. Jay vivid­ly con­veys how the Cross Bronx Express­way was built and destroyed their neighborhood.

The streets of Tremont, the shops and stores, the restau­rants, the homes, the cul­ture, and the peo­ple are most cred­i­bly cap­tured and recre­at­ed in Cross­ing the Bronx. Col­or­ful char­ac­ters inhab­it a thriv­ing area of Ital­ians, Jews, and Irish groups. They each exhib­it their prej­u­dices, yet acknowl­edge each oth­er and are respect­ful of their bound­aries. The many immi­grants work­ing hard to achieve the Amer­i­can Dream will soon find them­selves in the crosshairs of urban intrigue. Their lives, busi­ness­es, and homes inter­sect with a scheme to move the planned Cross Bronx Express­way from its orig­i­nal city-sanc­tioned route to a new route run­ning straight through their neigh­bor­hood for the ben­e­fit of crooked politi­cians, pol­i­cy mak­ers, gang­sters, and bureaucrats.

Jay and his girl­friend, Francesca Cast­erel­la, try to fight the greedy sys­tem. They obtain evi­dence of the fraud, devise chan­nels of infor­ma­tion, and even­tu­al­ly ral­ly the com­mu­ni­ty into activ­i­ty. The pre­vi­ous­ly defense­less res­i­dents start fight­ing back.

Jay’s in-depth ses­sions with his ther­a­pist clev­er­ly divulge his thoughts and feel­ings. Their point­ed dia­logues dis­cuss moral­i­ty, choic­es, and fam­i­ly loy­al­ty. Jay grap­ples with guilt and atone­ment. He is also guid­ed by Rab­bi Leviev through­out his years of Hebrew school, young adult­hood, and his army stint. He strug­gles with his own taint­ed his­to­ry as he strives to come to terms with the real­i­ties of his situation.

Cross­ing the Bronx is an absorb­ing and thought­ful read, but also a step-by-step les­son in how the cor­rupt plan was hatched, imple­ment­ed, financed, and achieved. Famous New York names enhance the sto­ry. Not­ed builder Robert Moses, May­or Wag­n­er, Tam­many Hall boss Carmine DeSa­pio, New York base­ball team own­ers, con­struc­tion fig­ures, and oth­ers are involved in pay­offs, bribes, and shake­downs. (The author includes a dis­claimer that the nov­el is not a tes­ta­ment to the actu­al events and peo­ple.) The intense action scenes in Cross­ing the Bronx unfold like a cin­e­mat­ic expe­ri­ence, and the engag­ing and mem­o­rable char­ac­ters, dia­logue, and set­ting evoke the 1950s while speak­ing to cur­rent-day issues. 

A ride on today’s Cross Bronx Express­way will sure­ly con­jure up thoughts of Jay’s sto­ry and the lost Tremont neighborhood.