Leaving Brooklyn (2006) by Lynne Schwartz

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Leaving Brooklyn (2006)

by Lynne Schwartz

Brooklyn, New York

Brooklyn/Queens/Long Island/Staten Island: 11/28

New York: 87/105

   Leaving Brooklyn is a novella about a nice girl from Brooklyn growing up in the middle of the 20th century who f**** her optometrist as a 15 year old.  For a story that, these days, would likely end up with the perpetrator in prison for a lengthy stretch, Leaving Brooklyn is a surprisingly low stakes affair. I gather from the reviews I read from when Leaving Brooklyn that this a work of bio-fic/thinly veiled memoir, i.e. that is something that happened to the author, and it seems dated in that sense, as much as the "Great White Man" fiction that it mirrors.  These days, a 15 year old simply can not f*** an adult man without being considered a victim by society, in the place and time this book is set, 15 year olds could and did get married. 

   It was, in other words, a real cringe fest as the kids say, with the "love scenes" by the naive 15 year old protagonist and the adult doctor being particularly rough to stomach.  At least Leaving Brooklyn is short and it very much left me wondering what the f*** I had just read.