That is particularly true of Chabon’s male characters the women are the realists, while their husbands and sons grapple from opposite sides with just what fatherhood means. Here those passions take a distinctive shape: From blaxploitation movies to bebop, from muscle cars to tie-dye long johns, they embody a longing for the past, nostalgia as an armor against loss. Many share Chabon’s own passions for music, movies and other pop culture. The two central families are surrounded by expanding rings of brightly drawn characters with whom Chabon gives us a dynamic portrait of a diverse community, with all its quirks and grudges. So, while Brokeland faces a big-box attack, the Birth Partners are dealing with possibly losing their hospital privileges - and being sued by the mother’s boyfriend.
When Gwen begins to lose her usually seamless cool, he piles on a couple of racist cracks that send her over the edge. She’s fine, but her snotty doctor lashes out at the midwives. Their spotless record takes a hit early in the book when a patient delivers a healthy baby at home, but begins to hemorrhage and must be taken to the hospital. They react true to type: Nat prepares to fight while Archy edges into denial.Īrchy’s and Nat’s wives are in business together, too, as the Berkeley Birth Partners - Aviva Roth-Jaffe, “the Alice Waters of midwives,” and Gwen Shanks, who is herself just a couple of uncomfortable weeks away from giving birth. Gibson “G Bad” Goode, former pro quarterback turned media mogul and “the fifth richest black man in America,” plans to build something called a Dogpile Thang - multiplex, food court, arcade, retail and three-story media (including used records) store - just a few blocks down Telegraph Avenue from Brokeland Records.
They’ve managed to get by, but now disaster looms. It’s a noble devotion, but one only a distressingly small number of customers share. A used record store is not exactly a surefire business plan, and Brokeland is hobbled by its owners’ tastes: They are stone jazz and soul aficionados, and the vinyl they glean from estate sales and Dumpster dives reflects that.
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