Bank Street is a coming-of-age story about Jerry Flanagan, a 22 year-old college graduate and native of the Jersey Shore. He starts his banking career in 1976 as one of fifteen management trainees working for a large regional bank in Newark, N.J. The country has just celebrated its Bicentennial, and the disco culture is reaching its peak. Jerry’s peers at the bank are smart, ambitious, competitive and eager-to-succeed early twenty-somethings who represent a cross-section of ethnic, racial, economic and social backgrounds. They discover that even though they all have their own individual career objectives and dreams, they must pull together as a team if they are to survive their first year in the workplace. In addition to helping each other out on the job, they naturally start to socialize outside the workplace. Jerry is smitten with fellow trainee Maria DeMarco, an intelligent, beautiful, and somewhat shy young lady who shares an important secret with Jerry. In addition, Jerry endures a tragic event, the death of a fellow trainee, his close friend and colleague. This event shakes up Jerry’s idyllic world, but also serves as a catalyst for solidifying his relationship with Maria. Jerry tries to prove himself as a rising star in his trainee class by uncovering a suspected misdeed by a client of the bank, aided and abetted by one of the bank’s senior officers. Maria, who assists him in his undercover work, is caught in the cross-fire and Jerry’s plan suddenly unravels. He must somehow win her back and redeem himself in her eyes.
The novel is set in a time period when there were no smartphones or social media, when executives still had secretaries, and the financial industry was still dominated by white men of privilege. That world, however, is changing and this new breed of bank trainees comprise a diverse group of strivers who unwittingly break down the old stereotypes. The story celebrates the bonds of friendship which develop among this group of baby boomers who are thrust into the real world for the first time. Jerry’s childhood experiences and family circumstances forge his value system, spurring him to look out for others and to do the right thing . He is the glue that holds this group of trainees together through their trying times.
