Of all Staten Island novels, Paul Zindel’s “The Pigman” (1968) is surely the most famous. Dedicated to the “boys and girls of Stapleton”, the story of two teenagers who befriend an eccentric old man has been assigned reading in English classes for decades. Less well known is the book’s sequel, “The Pigman’s Legacy” (1980) in … More The Pigman
While Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy film “The Shape of Water”, achieved critical acclaim, Staten Island has its own fictional work of the same name. In Anne Spollen’s 2008 novel, fifteen-year-old Magdalena Sorrin has to learn to deal with her mentally disturbed mother’s death, her father’s impending remarriage and her own social isolation and awkwardness. She … More The Shape of Water
In Paul Zindel’s “I Never Loved Your Mind” (1970) high school dropout Dewey Daniels begins a tumultuous relationship with free-spirited hippie Yvette Goethals, who shares a Mariner’s Harbor house with a rock band and two horses and later moves to a free-love commune, Love Land, on Arthur Kill Road. The pair share a kiss atop … More I Never Loved Your Mind
“The Secret of the Emerald Star” (1964) by Phyllis Whitney tells of the adventures of thirteen-year-old Robin Ward, who has just moved with her family to a cul-de-sac off of Jersey Street called Catalpa Court, a street modeled after Fort Hill Circle, where the author was then residing. Robin befriends the blind, half-Cuban granddaughter of … More The Secret of the Emerald Star
In another young adult novel that takes place on the Ferry, two young men in William MacKellar’s “Alfie and Me and the Ghost of Peter Stuyvesant” (1974) meet the ghost of New Netherland’s last Governor General aboard the ferryboat Mary Murray and and help him in his attempt to achieve posthumous civic recognition. Born in … More Alfie and Me and the Ghost of Peter Stuyvesant
The somewhat mysterious author Geraldine McDonald Wallis (1925-?) wrote “No More Trains to Tottenville” (1971) under the pseudonym of Hope Campbell. In this book, a 16 year old Manhattan girl goes to Staten Island on a whim and takes the train to Tottenville, where she meets and falls in love with a beguiling young man … More No More Trains to Tottenville
In “Just Call Me Bandicoot” (Harper & Row, 1970) by William Pène Du Bois (1916-1993), a fast-talking hustler aboard the Staten Island Ferry regales a Manhattan rider with an extravagant tale tale in exchange for some junk food from the boat’s snack bar. Pène Du Bois’ own father, the famed artist and critic Guy Pène … More Just Call Me Bandicoot
Best-selling author Phyllis Whitney’s “The Island of Dark Woods” (1951) is a mystery novel for young people in which Staten Island history figures prominently. Whitney was a resident of the island for a number of years and accurately captures the local pride of its residents and describes the island’s rich history and contemporary cultural institutions, … More The Island of Dark Woods
Staten Island in Fiction 