Five Points Forgotten
Date
2018-06-14
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MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa
Abstract
Five Points Forgotten is a 90,000 word historical mystery that begins during the
Civil War and concludes in 1910. During that time, the Manhattan locale of Five Points
was synonymous with poverty and crime. Yet despite their struggles, people in Five
Points formed lasting friendships, and even a sense of family. Five Points Forgotten
follows Noble Jennings from an orphan child into his sixties when he became the first
American diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
William Henley and Noble have been best friends since they were in an
orphanage together. As adults, Noble is charged with murder. William, a successful
attorney, defends his friend using the original defense of early on-set dementia. Five
Points Forgotten is a tapestry told within the framework of Noble’s trial.
The novel weaves together an ensemble of real and fictional characters that
include Dr. Alois Alzheimer; Dr. Levi Solomon Fuller, the first black American
psychiatrist; Sarah, a mulatto woman who must care for her brain damaged mother;
Tammany Hall racists; Jenny Big Stink, a drug dealing fish peddler; and Lonny
Massacre, a serial killer.
Told in five sections (Five Points), and dramatized through conventional literary
devices such as third person close and omniscient narratives, and through newspaper
articles, a manifesto, and other non-traditional story telling tools, Five Points Forgotten
culminates in Noble’s trial when William fights for his best friend’s life, and
metaphorically for his own.
The novel’s principle themes include forgetting from where we’ve come and, as
an extension, remembrance. Also, finding family in unexpected places.
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Keywords
Historical fiction, Alzheimer's disease, Mystery, New York City, 19th century