RIVER TOWN GIRL

Litterine recalls growing up in a small town across the Hudson River from New York City in this original, poetic debut memoir.

The author’s first memory of Edgewater, New Jersey, was standing on a stool at 3 years old looking over the town to the Hudson River beyond. Her memoir ably captures growing up in a working-class town in the 1950s, ’60s, and early ’70s by weaving together memories, journal entries, poetry, dreams, and historical detail. Litterine escorts readers through the streets of her hometown, giving them a full sensory experience, from sights (“sun sequins sparkling on river water”) to smells (“shad smoke on the early spring air”). She candidly discusses key life events, like reaching puberty and kissing: “Sometimes when we French kiss, his spit gets in my mouth, and I’m shocked to find it tastes good.” Other recorded life events include visiting a psychiatrist to address her anxiety, her first major job at a newspaper, and a trip to Europe. At the opening of the memoir, Litterine ponders her metaphysical connection to Edgewater, a connection she envisions stretched across time to the first settlers: “I can envelop myself in the deep silence that surrounded the Lenni Lenape….Or I can sink back with a sigh into the soft leather seats of the town’s first car.” A Whitmanesque ability to “embroider the facts left behind and enter other lives” transforms the work into a voyage of discovery in which Litterine imagines being part of the territory’s tribal past, “moving through the summer forest I shape the wind that blows around me.” When telling her own personal story, she exhibits an extraordinary analytical tenderness: “My father was deeply loving and deeply wounded. Love made him vulnerable and wounds made him self-protective.” Those keen on a more conventional approach to memoir may mistake this as a hodgepodge of ideas. What Litterine, in fact, creates is a brightly detailed patchwork of memories that is a vibrant celebration of her hometown across the ages. Includes the author’s photographs alongside other relevant artwork.

Both dazzlingly imaginative and comfortingly nostalgic.