Wonderland

May 27, 2024
In this winning debut memoir, CUNY writing instructor Treska untangles what she learned from growing up in a working-class, crime-adjacent Boston family. Treska came of age in the 1980s and ’90s, long after the beachside amusement park of the book’s title had shuttered, though its legacy lived on as a symbol of the hopes and dreams of the “hardscrabble Bostonians” who populated the author’s early life. Her father, Phil, was a habitual gambler and occasional drug trafficker whose perennial optimism (“Each decision and small act was imbued with hope”) sculpted the author’s own sensibility. His entanglements with the Winter Hill Gang and other shady figures taught Treska to “hone her hustle,” a lesson she’s put to good use as one of “the waitresses of academia,” who makes ends meet by renting out her Harlem apartment on Airbnb. The death of Treska’s paternal aunt spurs her to return home to Boston and anchors her self-reflections, but there’s not much narrative thrust to speak of. Instead, Treska paints indelible impressions of Phil, his criminal cohort, and her lovers, including the avoidant academic she falls for in New York City. It amounts to an arresting and compassionate self-portrait. Agent: Annie DeWitt, Shipman Agency.