Million Dollar View
Million Dollar View October 11, 2012- "Simply by glancing at the cover, Silver Krieger’s Million Dollar View engages all of the imagination’s senses. The title evokes visions of urban landscapes and Keith Duquette’s drawings bring the comical, tragic, and graphic images of Krieger’s prose to life. The book weaves through the relationships of Flynn Sharpe, a real estate agent who still has a conscience and a heart, as he ambivalently seeks to gentrify a Park Slope neighborhood and falls for a local artist. Million Dollar View is extremely readable, at times colloquial, and true to the language of New York City (the “f-bomb” is dropped liberally). The author is a native New Yorker, and in her writing Brooklyn has emerged as a very distinct character itself, a quirky character with a sense of humor and a toughness. One of the most humorous depictions takes place when Flynn infiltrates a community meeting opposing the destruction of Aunt Muffin’s. Flynn wonders: “Where were the eye-catching radicals he always saw on the news, shoving tofu in police officers’ faces while wearing red communist-looking kerchiefs to hide from the FBI?” (103). Krieger debunks and pokes fun at stereotypes by illuminating their truths and ridiculousness. A similar comical moment comes when Flynn tries to fit in with Brooklyn hipsters and impulsively wanders into a Brooklyn Industries and leaves with a new shoulder bag. The book presents co-protagonists in Flynn and [local artist] Nicole: Flynn who enters a new neighborhood, and Nicole, whose neighborhood is intruded upon by the likes of Flynn, and who wonders “How do you say f*uck you in smoke rings?” (159). Million Dollar View casually enters a conversation about changing demographics in New York and changing senses of belonging. The book satisfies a passion for both a lighthearted romantic comedy novel and a deeper interrogation of how a location can shape identities."-CherryGrrl.com Review: by Emily SL