Book Review: The Brooklyn Follies

A story about returning home and then finding your way

Daye Lindsay
3 min readMar 6, 2024

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Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Folly: a lack of good judgment

SYNONYM: stupidity. Oxford Dictionary

59-year-old Nathan Glass has returned to his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, awaiting his “possible” impending death. His doctor’s news that his lung cancer is now in remission failed to rejuvenate his desire to keep living. Divorced, lonely, and estranged from his only daughter, the retired life insurance salesman yearns for solitude and a means to occupy his time until it’s over.

Nathan decides to write “The Book of Human Folly”, in which he plans to “set down in the simplest, clearest language possible an account of every blunder, every pratfall, every embarrassment, every idiocy, every foible, and every inane act I had committed during my long and checkered career as a man.”

After farcically listing his foibles, he will expand his offering to include the missteps of his family, friends, and humankind throughout history.

This should keep him occupied until the end.

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Oh, The Brooklyn Follies

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Daye Lindsay

I'm a book reviewer and aspiring author dedicated to building a community by sharing my love for books and offering tips for new writers and creatives.