Great Neck

From Strand Bookstore

A huge, sprawling novel that plumbs the depths of the lives of 'privileged Long Island childhoods' in the Beverly Hills-like community of Great Neck. The much-praised author of Krazy Kat and The Death of Che Guevara serves up a tumultuous story of a group of friends - most of them Jewish - growing up idealistic, radical, and romantic in the sixties and seventies. 703p.

From the Publisher

From the much-praised author of Krazy Kat and The Death of Che Guevara, the tumultuous story of a group of friends growing up idealistic, radical, and romantic in the sixties and seventies.

We enter their lives in 1960 as a sixth-grade class of Great Neck kids—most of them Jewish—learns for the first time, in horrifying detail, about the Holocaust, with its moral imperative to “make justice” in the world. When the older brother of one of the students is murdered in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, they think they have found their mission, and when they receive letters from him seemingly written after his death, a heady mystical dimension is added that impels them into the civil rights and peace movements, joining their lives to a multitude of others.

Among the huge cast of characters: a boy-genius comic-book artist, who transforms their gang into Superheroes. The lovely long-legged sister of the boy who was murdered and the brilliant kid brother of the black activist killed with him. The gay son of a wealthy art collector, who introduces his friends
to the wild and sometimes dangerous New York art scene. The beautiful daughter of a Holocaust survivor, who joins the ultraradical Weathermen; the quantum physics whiz and Christian mystic who becomes her bomb-maker; and a Black Power leader, who will accompany her and others into their last and most extreme act.

Great Neck brings us inside privileged Long Island childhoods and into the churches and juke joints
and jails of Mississippi, into underground meetings and protest marches fueled by a potent mix of sex, politics, and drugs. It reminds us of the optimism, courage, and dangerous dreams of a generation who sometimes seemed to think they must be superheroes. Above all, Great Neck is the compelling portrait of complex, appealing young men and women shaping and being shaped by the momentous events of their time.

Review

Adam Begley - New York Times Book Review
"Can a novel be both economical and bloated? Some writers worry about how to get a character down the stairs and out the door -- not Cantor. He's a minimalist when it comes to stage directions and decor. A few deft touches, and there you are....But Cantor is definitely a maximalist when it comes to covering emotional ground, especially the spasm of conscience....There are more than a dozen characters in GREAT NECK who regularly come in for full head scans; it's as though Cantor required a detailed topographical survey of someone's psyche--anyone's psyche--on every other page....GREAT NECK...is so rich in character and incident that you can't help wishing it a long shelf life and many devoted readers. Overflowing with brainpower--as though all the minds Cantor investigates were somehow networked and engaged in furious serial processing--it finds room for heart, too. It is, after all, a novel about friends."

Review

Kirkus
"Comprehensive and amusing."

More about the book

Set in the '60s, this novel about upper-class kids on Long Island focuses on Billy Green and the comic book he creates that provides a tour through turbulent times. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.