Brooklyn, 1969

The majority of the story takes place in Brooklyn in 1969, during a time of social upheaval and change. The novel frequently references real people and events in order to set the scene. The real figures mentioned include Mayor John Lindsay, who was mayor of New York City from 1966-1973, urban developer Robert Moses, a controversial figure even to this day in New York politics, and Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who served as governor of New York from 1959-1973. The novel also makes a passion mention of the riot that broke out in Brownsville, New York after a police officer shot and killed an 11-year-old black boy named Richard Ross. Additionally, the novel uses the fictional Gorvino crime family as a stand in for the real-life Gambino family, a notorious organized crime family.

The Causeway Housing Projects

The fictional Causeway Housing Projects in South Brooklyn, or the Cause as it...