"Floyd Harbor brings to mind Denis Johnson and Irvine Welsh, though
it's also as moving and ecstatic as the early songs of Bruce
Springsteen." --Zachary Lazar, author of Vengeance
Mowdy's gritty debut collection of linked stories is set in a rundown
community on eastern Long Island, with characters struggling to overcome
poverty and trauma. --New York Times Book Review, New & Noteworthy
Set largely in the 1990s, the twelve linked stories in Joel Mowdy's
first book take place in and around Mastic Beach, a community on New
York's Long Island that's close to the wealthy Hamptons but afflicted by
widespread poverty. Mostly in their teens and early twenties, the
characters struggle to become independent in various ways, ranging from
taking typical lowpaying jobs--hotel laundry, janitorial, restaurant,
and landscaping work--to highly ingenious schemes, to exchanging sexual
favors for a place to stay. A few make it to local community colleges;
others end up in rehab or juvenile detention centers. However loving,
their parents can offer little help. Those who are Vietnam veterans may
suffer from PTSD; others may bear the addictions that often come with
stressful lives.
Neighborhoods of small bungalows--formerly vacation homes--with
dilapidated boats in the driveways hint at the waterways that open up
close by. The beauty of the ocean beach offer further consolation, as
does the often high-spirited temperament of youth. Joel Mowdy brings to
his affecting collection both personal experience and a gift for
discerning and lingering on the essential moments in his characters'
stories. He intimately and vividly illuminates American lives that too
seldom see the light.
