Wash Basin Street Blues: Nora in New York - Softcover

Gr. 7^-10. In this sequel to Melody for Nora (1995), Nora, a 16-year-old Irish girl and aspiring pianist, travels to 1920s New York City to visit her two younger brothers, Denis and Ritchie, who live with their aunt and uncle. The siblings haven't seen one another since the breakup of their family after their mother's death and their father's battle with alcohol, but the reunion is not as joyful as Nora imagined. Fearing that Denis has joined up with neighborhood gangsters, she feels frustrated by her aunt and uncle's lack of parental control. Yet Nora herself has become entangled with a notorious mobster, who is so enchanted with her musical talent that he wants to give her tuition for a prominent academy in the city. Although the text is slightly overwritten and the gangster characters somewhat stereotypical, the story successfully evokes the flavor of Prohibition-era New York City. Readers may be put off by occasional references to Nora's experience in the Irish civil war, the subject of Melody for Nora, but overall this novel stands on its own. Laura Tillotson