Here They Come

I loved this book. I loved how she wove together all these beautifully written episodes that spiralled together and formed one great story about growing up. It was almost magical what she did. I never knew where the story was going to go next, but whatever direction it took, it always seemed to be the right direction.

What a family! What a story! I loved this book. Every time I picked it up, I didn't know where I would end up. The images of growing up destitute in New York City as described by the 13 year old narrator were so poignantly written that you couldn't help but wonder where is she now? Early on I was lured into the filthy dysfunction this family manages to endure, yet found myself eagerly awaiting their next disappointment. Despite the rampant alcoholism, preoccupied mother and violence-prone brother, the love within this family endures. This book is beautifully written, bleak at times, but vibrantly alive! I can't wait for the sequel.

Being one who does not have the time to pick up a good book very often, Here They Come was a lucky draw. I was spiraled back to my own early days in 1970's New York City along with Murphy's dysfunctional family. I almost felt the need to wash my hands when I finished the book it was so grimy, yet beautifully penned. I enjoyed the rich illustrative language and colorful characters, imagining their despair and hopefulness, while the garbage continued to pile up. Murphy is a dynamic young writer, blending a bit of concrete Hemingway with a dash of urbanized Pearl S. Buck. This novel would make a wonderful period motion picture, capturing that thankfully long gone slice of hazy and humid tenement Manhattan with the greasy aroma of hot dogs lingering in the air...Is that Susan Sarandon I smell picking up her Oscar for her role as the mother? Bring on the sequel!

I didn't mean to read this book right away. I was in the middle of another book, but I just thought I'd read the first few pages. I'm a slow reader, but two days later I was at the end of Here They Come, my bookmark still stuck in the other book on my bedtable. I suppose I understand people who don't see a "plot" in this book--it's certainly not your typical plot, with a series of actions and reactions leading inexorably to some climactic action in the end--but I think there is a plot here. Themes and characters are developed in what seems like an effortlessly precise manner, all culminating in the final fifteen pages of the book. There is a definite sense of finality here as all of the characters are given satisfactory endings to their various archs (though I must admit I was a bit shocked by the end that one of the characters reached in the last three pages). Anyway, I can't recommend this book highly enough. It reads like a lucid dream of childhood, the sort in which events that you were only told about seem equally as real as things you participated in directly. This is a book that I will definitely be reading again.

I'm not exactly sure why, but I really enjoyed this story. This novel is filled with beautful and brutal language that makes you stop and pay attention--not that you're ever bored with the characters who wander through this rough-edged narrative told by a young girl living in New York City in the 1970s. Eccentric insufficiently describes this family--the resigned outrage of a woman whose husband has left her with three daughters, the two older floating in and out of their filthy apartment with no real destination, while her youngest is on the streetcorner getting candy from the hot dog vendor in return for opportunities for him to feel her up. The brother's dramatic streak expresses itself in staccato episodes of violence, drugs and the music that is his constant. Add to this mix an alcoholic French grandmother, a father whose only real contribution to this family seems to have been his genetic material, and the father's girlfriend, who sparks a campaign to find her lover when he disappears off the face of the earth. Seen through the eyes of a young girl these characters have a believability that defies reason. Believe me, this is only scratching at the surface. Beneath all the garbage you get a sense that these people belong together and are still a family in a sense of the word that only they can define. And again, the author tells her story with imagery and language that, at times, made me hold my breath for just a moment.