Teaser/Intro: Upper West Side Story by Susan Pashman

I stood up to face Stephen, a lump swelling in my throat. “It is simple,” I cried. “I can’t stand all this conniving and second-guessing when the truth is perfectly obvious. It’s always some stupid game with you politicians. But they can’t play games with our son, Stephen. That’s just not going to happen!”

I tore down the hall to our bedroom and stared out at the city. Down every street, behind every window, lives were being ruined – choked by greed, poisoned by ambition, obliterated by self-interest. The city stared back at me, a professor of political theory, a stalwart campaigner for a more just world.

Title: Upper West Side Story
Author: Susan Pashman
ISBN: 9781941861035
Publisher: Harvard Square Editions/2015
Pages: 286


The story is about two families, one White, other Black. Bettina is white and Viola is Black. Both forge deep bonds with each other and are good friends. Their sons, Max and Cyrus are in the same school and are very close to each other.

Both had gone to a field trip and Cyrus dies due to an accident. Max is held responsible for it. Bettina gets to read Max's diary and finds great insights about Max and Cyrus's friendship. Hard hitting, thought provoking, loss, racial prejudice and however hard one might try not to be affected by it all, one gets embroiled in the midst of it.

The divide is there, ever present despite best efforts, and unfairness of it all when a boy is wrongly punished for something he did not do. Bettina does not give up. She has to save her son. She also feels for Viola who has lost a son. Her loyalties get torn yet she has to save her son. 

This book grabbed me and kept me enthralled till the end. I felt for both the mothers and the helplessness, the utter loneliness of the characters. Love, forgiveness, redemption, isn't what we want?

This novel covers those and more.....


Posted this review for iRead Book Tours