The cultural and ethnic flavors of Flatbush, Brooklyn have changed over these many years, from seventeenth-century Dutch to eastern European and Jewish, and the present Caribbean influence. Over time, small, rich farms run by Patrician families gave way to the dignified garden homes of Victorian Flatbush when the economy could no longer support farming. Through annexation by Brooklyn, development of the railroad and trolleys (which inspired the name of baseball's famed Trolley Dodgers), and the drain of suburban flight, Flatbush residents actively sought to keep their town a place to call home.

Features a new chapter. At the age of 43, writer Allen Abel decided to move home to Brooklyn, stay with his mother (in the same apartment in which he grew up), and explore and write about the borough of his birth. For several months he wandered along Flatbush Avenue, the thoroughfare that runs like a spine through Brooklyn. The result is a delightful family memoir and exploration of a unique place. He hobnobs with Mohawk high-steel workers, tries to learn voodoo secrets from Haitian immigrants, commiserates with policemen detailed to the subway, and chats with an ex-zookeeper in Prospect Park. He revisits the scenes of his childhood, samples social life in distant Flatlands, and hunts for horseshoe crabs on the shoreline. "Flatbush Odyssey is a revelation, and in it Allen Abel has produced a marvellous piece of storytelling.

The 1957 Brooklyn Dodgers were past their prime but still boasted a powerful roster with iconic names like Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. They did not achieve greatness--they finished third in the National League--but did achieve legendary status as the last of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and marked the end of a fantastic era of baseball, when the New York Yankees, the New York Giants, and the Dodgers were the epicenter of the game's Golden Age. Baseball would never be quite the same. Documenting the fabled team's final season in New York, this book focuses on the games, the player's stories and the down-to-the-wire struggle by Brooklynites and politicians to keep the club from relocating to Los Angeles in 1958. Detailed biographies of each player and coach, and manager Walter Alston are included.