Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez
When I saw the title of this book, Last Night in Brooklyn, I immediately thought I was about to read a post-apocalyptic dystopian tale (that could have had something to do with the other media I’d been consuming), but I urged myself to read the description. And of course, when I saw a character named La Garza, my mind went into a completely different direction. I was imagining drag queens and elaborate dresses and nights out on the town.
And while the drag queen angle isn’t there, I got all of that in this story. But more importantly, I got the same feeling I would’ve gotten at a drag show: a sense of awe, wonder and being in the presence of someone who’s living a big life. Definitely bigger than me. Maybe bigger than most of us.
Brooklyn Before the Bubble Burst
The story is told from the perspective of Alicia Forten, a Puerto Rican Black woman reminiscing about her life in 2007 in Brooklyn: a time between historic events 9/11 and the election of America’s first Black president. iPhones were for rich people, Brooklyn’s neighborhoods were changing or getting eliminated for some basketball stadium (that “may or may not happen”) and the rest of America outside of NYC thought Guiliani was a good guy. At first, we think we’re delving into Alicia’s life and her relationship with her fiancé James; instead, we get introduced to “La Garza,” a “midlist” (is that a descriptor outside of publishing?) fashion designer and neighborhood legend. Alicia becomes our narrator as her world moves away from her fiancé James, studying in Syracuse to become a medical doctor, and these true Brooklynites, who may have left their working-class economic pasts for work or college in Manhattan, came back to their culturally rich borough to do the grown-up thing.
Alicia’s group of friends are the beginnings of the multi-hyphenates and side hustlers: from seamstress-fashion designers to Wall Street broker-deejays, this motley crew of twenty-somethings are between tax brackets and each other’s sheets while real life keeps churning on around them.
Xochitl Gonzalez seamlessly juxtaposes the fictional world of Alicia Forten on a very real and historic landscape: Brooklyn, New York, before the burst of the housing bubble, which caused the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and the election of President Obama. The story’s setup reminded me of the 1997 movie Titanic, where a very real event of a so-called unsinkable ship hitting an iceberg is the backdrop of a fictionalized story about a blue diamond and an ill-fated romance.
But if you’re thinking Last Night in Brooklyn will play out like the non-fiction book Sex and the City and the fictionalized TV show and movies, then think again. These characters are not exactly a side of New York City that you usually see in the media but are no less a reality. The varied representation here is the essence of New York. Friends of different “melanated” shades and different backgrounds, striving together to make a stamp in a racist, crowded, and nameless — though not faceless — community, are not your most media-depicted friends. I also appreciate that most of the characters, in what becomes an ensemble novel told from Alica’s point of view, are layered and authentic and individual. Leave your Puerto Rican and Black stereotypes outside, and open your mind.
A Cast of Layered Lives
If you’re a Gen-Xer reading Last Night in Brooklyn, you’ll feel a sense of appreciation at the layers of these characters, along with most likely a bit of nostalgia (even if you’ve never been to New York City). And if you love a bit of mystery and dramatic chaos with your fiction, you’ll savor this story until the last page. But you won’t feel the head-swirling, confusing pandemonium of a dystopian novel, or even of real life today. Somehow, this ragtag group’s antics, while fitting of a big La Garza life, seem familiar and from a time when life was more civil and more sane. Lots of delicious drama without the trauma.
And yes, while you want to know about La Garza, you’ll also want to know how Alica’s life turns out, too. And you won’t be left hanging, as Alicia might say, on either count.
About Xochitl Gonzalez:
Xochitl Gonzalez is a contributor to The Atlantic, where she was recognized as a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Commentary. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning novel Olga Dies Dreaming, the Reese’s Book Club Pick Anita de Monte Laughs Last, and her latest novel Last Night in Brooklyn. A native Brooklynite and proud public school graduate, Gonzalez holds a BA from Brown University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is a trustee of the corporation of Brown University and the Brooklyn Public Library.
