All These Familiar Things

Abstract

ALL THESE FAMILIAR THINGS is a novel-in-stories set in the 1990s in the South Bronx. Each chapter follows a different neighbor at 1457 Ogden Avenue. Still, three teenagers weave in and out of the chapters—Miguel, who works at the bodega and may have inadvertently been the snitch that brought the cops to the door; Tito, an angry kid who is trying to break into the drug dealer's inner circle because he has no one else; and Cassandra, a college hopeful who wants to "fix" the neighborhood. After the raid, Tito eventually tries to leave for the suburbs, Cassandra leaves but returns after graduate school, not having fixed anything, and Miguel stays and tries to live an average life. The title speaks to the idea that destruction can be cyclical and familiar, especially in the hood. That feeling of familiarity and community, even in the struggle, is the real heart of the narrative.