Cheap Great Neck (Book) (JAY CANTOR) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Great Neck

I really wanted to like it...
I had such high hopes for this book. I think I gave it a fair chance (I stopped on page 122). At 700 pages with a smallish type set, there is enough material here for a few books. Cantor's style of tangent-laden sentences, skipping through multiple time periods without much segue make for slow-going work. MANY different characters with similar sounding names and all with secondary names as well add to the confusion. Might pick this back up in the future if feeling more adventurous.

---

The Irony of Holocaust "Blowback" on the North Shore
"Great Neck" is one of the most distinctively creative books I have read. Cantor brilliantly interweaves, and depicts a quite plausible interconnection between the impact of the civil rights movementand the Students for a Democratic Society of the late '60s/early '70s as a reaction to the search for sanctuary from anti-semetism, and the Holocaust specifically, in the affluent oasis of Great Neck, Long Island. However, in his tale the author indicates that this quest was quixiotic, that in fact the legacy of the Holocaust cannot be escaped and that their religion's heritage of ethics and responsibility eventually compells Jews to venture from what is safe to advocate for social justice. The irony of the book (in Cantor's rendering) is that as a response to persecution Jews won hard sought after success and moved to Great Neck as a sanctuary to savor their achievements, only to find peace elusive.

To those familiar with the actual Great Neck, LI, the book may come as a surprise. It in no way validates stereotypes of shallow self absorbed exceedingly affluent suburban New Yorkers. This is a complex book that attempts to depict the angst of the experience of a group of the now Jewish upper middle class in a segment of Long Island, who find their tortured heritage impossible to escape. "Great Neck" is an engrossing, substantive and thought provoking book.

---

Great Neck is a Must Read
Great Neck is one of those few big novels that comes along and simply sweeps the reader into a world that is radical, idealistic, naive, romantic, and scary as hell. The 60s were tranformational, and somehow Jay Cantor has managed to write with authority and eloquence in the mulitiple voices of that time. How Cantor knows so much about SDS 'kids', drugs, Black Power, and Holocaust survivors, for just a start, is remarkable. The book is not an easy read but it is written so well that you cannot put it down. For anyone who wants to go deep into the sociology of this American Generation,Great Neck is a must read.