Jacob Traum, a retired high school social worker, has no illusions about who he is, describing himself in David Forbes’ first novel, Broken Land Dreams, as a “brooding, grumpy, white male lefty Boomer” with a Brooklyn attitude. He’s disillusioned, yes, but he has ample reasons for his disaffection: His wife Maya recently left him; COVID is raging; ambulance sirens blare 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and Brooklyn has gentrified so rapidly that he feels like he’s mired in an upscale nightmare.