The City Beautiful (novel)

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The City Beautiful
AuthorAden Polydoros
GenreHistorical fantasy, young adult, thriller, gothic
PublisherInkyard Press
Publication date
5 October 2021
Pages480
ISBN978-1-335-40250-9

The City Beautiful is a young adult, historical fantasy[1] novel by Aden Polydoros, about a gay Jewish teenager in 19th century Chicago who is possessed by a dybbuk seeking revenge for its murder. The novel won the Sydney Taylor Book Award, and was nominated for the National Jewish Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the World Fantasy Award.[2][3][4][5]

Background and development

Polydoros was inspired to write The City Beautiful after reading an article about real-life serial-killer H. H. Holmes.[6] He wrote the novel as part of an independent study in his undergraduate degree.[7]

Synopsis

The novel follows Alter Rosen, a 17-year-old Romanian Jewish immigrant in Chicago in 1893. He avoided death by illness as an infant, but believes his presence curses the people around him to die, including his father who died on the voyage from Europe. Alter now works to earn money to bring his family to America. He is in love with his roommate, Yakov Kogan. Alter knows little about Yakov's past, except that his family died in a fire. On the Fourth of July, Yakov is found dead at the Chicago World's Fair with bruises on his neck, and the police say that he drowned. Raizel Ackermann, whom a matchmaker is trying to set up with Alter, complains that the police are not investigating the disappearance of three other Jewish boys, including her friend Aaron, and Alter becomes suspicious that Yakov was murdered.

Alter helps to prepare Yakov's body for burial but falls into the ritual bath and has a vision that his and Yakov's bodies fuse together. After this, Alter begins to have experiences that parallel Yakov's: dreaming about fire, speaking in Russian, and feeling pain around his throat and back where Yakov was injured. He has visions and does things without remembering it afterwards.

While investigating the murder, Alter runs into an old friend: Frankie Portnoy, a Lithuanian Torah-scholar-turned-thief who took Alter into his gang when he arrived in Chicago—Alter abandoned the gang after witnessing Frankie violently beat a man. Frankie now also fights illegal boxing matches for the rich. A boy from his gang, Victor, was also killed recently. Alter, Frankie and Raizel investigate the disappearances together, including going to the Whitechapel Club, accompanied by Frankie's patron Mr Whitby. The meet Mr Whitby's friend Gregory, who has a tattoo on his arm of a dragon and the letters KAT.

With his visions becoming more intense and dangerous, Alter confesses to Frankie about his strange experiences. Frankie suggests Alter is possessed by Yakov's dybbuk and takes him for an exorcism with a reclusive rabbi. Despite the rabbi's warning that the possession will soon kill him, Alter refuses to go through with the exorcism, fearing it will destroy both Yakov and himself. Instead, he and Frankie plan to end the possession by killing Yakov's murderer.

In the meantime, Alter struggles with his attraction to Frankie. After Alter tries to summon a vision by recreating Yakov's experience of dying in the water, Frankie saves Alter, afraid he was trying to kill himself. Afterwards, Frankie and Alter kiss, although Alter denies it meant anything the next day.

After hearing of another dead Jewish boy found in a meatpacking factory, they suspect that the factory's owner, Mr Katz—the same man Frankie beat up the year before—is the murderer. Alter sneaks into Katz's factory during a worker's strike to investigate more, but is captured by Katz, who admits to sexually abusing boys including Frankie. Frankie arrives, and goaded by Katz, Alter admits his love for Frankie. Raizel stabs Katz, and in the ensuing fight Frankie kills him.

Frankie tells Alter about how Katz abused him, luring him in with the offer of a job, and how it lead him to be a thief to avoid the same situation again. Frankie confesses his love to Alter. With Katz dead, they assume that Yakov's possession has ended.

However, another member of Frankie's gang, is killed, meaning Katz could not have been the murderer and Alter is still possessed. Alter has a vision of a winged creature made of burned humans, and Yakov tells him that his synagogue was burned down by Tugarin Zmeyevich—the same name as a mythical dragon. Alter remembers Gregory's dragon tattoo and realises he is the murderer. Frankie and Alter go to Mr Whitby to ask about Gregory; Whitby reveals his own hatred of Jews, and that Gregory has been following the World's Fair, killing Jewish boys. Yakov followed him to Chicago for vengeance, but was murdered instead.

Frankie goes after Gregory alone, but is injured. However, he manages to warn Alter that Gregory is planning to set fire to a building at the World's Fair. Alter almost dies confronting Gregory, experiencing a vision of himself in purgatory, with Yakov pushing him to live. But the World Fair was only a decoy for Gregory's real target, an unfinished synagogue whose burning would destroy the Jewish neighbourhood of Maxwell Street. Alter and Raizel confront Gregory, who while ranting about his hatred of Jews, gets tangled up in ropes and is strangled to death.

Alter undergoes the ritual purification of a corpse, and with his vengeance achieved through Gregory's death, Yakov finally ends his possession of Alter's body.

Raizel gets Alter a new job, as he lost his old one. Frankie decides to stop being a thief, and instead work to give new Jewish immigrants support adjusting to life in America. He suggests that Alter work with him.

A year later, Alter's mother and sisters arrive in Chicago, and Alter and Frankie greet them. His sisters admire the beauty of the buildings of the World's Fair, which is now over. Alter reflects on how the emptiness of the World's Fair is like that of America as a whole.

Themes

The novel deals with themes of antisemitism and labour exploitation.[8][9]

Reception

The New York Public Library included The City Beautiful on its Best Books for Teens 2021 list.[10] Kirkus Reviews described the book as "slow-moving but compelling", and praised the combination of a detailed historical setting with fantasy elements.[11] In a review for the Jewish Book Council, Sascha Lamb praises the depiction of different levels of religious observance among the characters, and how the novel affirms both Alter's religious observance and his self-acceptance as queer.[12] In a review for The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, April Spisak describes Alter as a "sympathetic and compelling protagonist".[9]

Awards and nominations

The City Beautiful won the young adult category of the Sydney Taylor Book Award.[5] It was a finalist in the young adult categories for the National Jewish Book Award and the Lambda Literary Award, and as of July 2022 is nominated for the World Fantasy Award for best novel.[2][4][3]

Sequel

In June 2022, Polydoros announced that a sequel to The City Beautiful—told from Frankie's point of view and set in 1894—is set to be published in the autumn of 2024.[13]

References

  1. ^ "The City Beautiful". Publisher's Weekly. Archived from the original on 10 Aug 2021. Retrieved 25 Jul 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Congratulations to the 2022 Lammy Finalists!". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 4 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b Asher-Perrin, Emmet (20 Jul 2022). "Announcing the 2022 World Fantasy Award Finalists". Tor.com. Archived from the original on 25 Jul 2022. Retrieved 25 Jul 2022.
  4. ^ a b JBC Staff (20 Jan 2022). "2021 National Jewish Book Award Winners". Jewish Book Council. Archived from the original on 10 May 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  5. ^ a b "2022 Sydney Taylor Book Award winners announced". American Library Association. 24 Jan 2022. Archived from the original on 9 Feb 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  6. ^ Polydoros, Aden (7 Feb 2022). "Dybbuk in Chicago: A Conversation with Aden Polydoros" (Interview). Interviewed by Simona Zaretsky. Archived from the original on 7 Feb 2022. Retrieved 31 Jul 2022.
  7. ^ Lavoie, Alaina (6 Sep 2021). "Q&A With Aden Polydoros, The City Beautiful". We Need Diverse Books. Archived from the original on 4 Jan 2022. Retrieved 14 Aug 2022.
  8. ^ Paxson, Caitlyn (25 September 2021). "Fall Brings YA Historicals About Haunted Boys And The Rapscallions Who Love Them". NPR. Archived from the original on 20 June 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  9. ^ a b Spisak, April (Dec 2021). "The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros (review)". Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. 75 (4): 135 – via Project MUSE.
  10. ^ "Best Books for Teens 2021". New York Public Library. Archived from the original on 31 Dec 2021. Retrieved 26 Jul 2022.
  11. ^ "The City Beautiful". Kirkus Reviews. 24 Jun 2021. Archived from the original on 30 June 2021. Retrieved 27 Jul 2022.
  12. ^ Lamb, Sascha (30 Jan 2022). "The City Beautiful". Jewish Book Council. Archived from the original on 14 Feb 2022. Retrieved 27 Jul 2022.
  13. ^ Polydoros, Aden (21 June 2022). "Just got the greenlight to talk about this--so thrilled to announce that my Fall 2024 book will be a sequel/companion novel to THE CITY BEAUTIFUL, told from Frankie's POV. ☺️ It'll have more of a gritty, noir feel, but same setting, winter of 1894". Twitter. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022.


External links

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