Triburbia – Karl Taro Greenfeld

Rating: 3 stars

I’ve decided to start my book reviews with basically a summary of the book (in flattering or not terms). The book is told from various points of view (I’m not gonna get into it, but it starts first person, goes to third person, back, then finishes in third person for the last third). They are a group of dads at Tribeca in Manhattan right before the financial collapse (spoilers, kinda). They all have little adventures, but almost all of the stories revolve around wealth, the petit bourgeois and infidelity.

When I started this book, I had very low expectations. I think one of the subjects that pleases me least are stories about rich people, especially rich creative people. It makes me think of somebody like Warhol. Then I expected something that was tongue-in-cheek without addressing the hypocrisy of an author writing about themself. I think, however, by the end, it kinda works. My verdict is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, but, because I cannot do half-stars on Goodreads, yeah, this is what you get. I was tempted for 4 stars, but the book isn’t memorable enough to me for that.

The good: The impotence and inability of the supposedly educated or accomplished to do much. The book also says in the first chapter basically that who is closest to the protagonist feels like an imposter and that this is enough to separate himself from the other wealthy dads, that he won’t become a hypocrite like them. It is good foreshadowing but (getting ahead of myself here) kinda predictable at the same time. It’s one of those stories that I feel like I’ve read/seen a dozen times already.

The bad: This is a book that feels like you’re supposed to identify with each of the characters depending on where you are in life. The problem is it’s no Unbearable Lightness of Being. I didn’t step into any of their shoes. The fault could be that I’m not a dad yet, but I do think that there are some things that are better done than others. For one, I think the story of the Sculptor is mostly superfluous, while I found how the Gangster was done almost perfect because it didn’t dwell or ask us to recall the character later on.

In reflection, maybe that was the point, that I would find the most sympathy with a thoroughly despicable person who literally was extorting money from immigrants. Well, not really. I don’t think you’re supposed to like any of the characters, but I think I did like Sadie, the babysitter for Mark (the protagonist of the first chapter). The circumstances force her to need money (because she’s not one of the rich) and extorts Mark into paying for her college. Yeah, blackmail isn’t a good thing, but Mark was more paying her because of his own problems.

The end of the story, though, does have a brief epilogue about redemption because Mark and a few other dads gets away from Tribeca. It’s a little cheesy and too easy, but, besides that, it raises a few questions. The author lives in Tribeca and is kinda similar to Mark. Is he doing one of those weird confess-through-the-public things? It obviously doesn’t matter, but that it could be plausible annoys me. I don’t wanna be involved in your marriage. I want a story, not yours if I’m reading fiction. If I’m reading non-fiction, then yes, please indulge me.