Boardwalk Stories [Paperback]

Roslyn Bernstein (Author), Dr. Kenneth S. Tydings (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 11, 2009

Fourteen linked tales spanning the decades 1950 to 1970 invite us into the private lives of the colorful denizens of communities like Coney Island, Long Beach, the Jersey shore, and the California beach towns. Set in the shadow of the Cold War, the boardwalk characters, many of them misfits and wannabes, share their joys and sorrows in a world where kewpie dolls and prizes are often the only consolations for lost dreams. Included in the cast are Beverly the queen of the Skeeball arcade, Jollie Trixie the fat lady, Arnold the king of Playworld, Miss Lydia the famous ballerina, and Joey the orphan. Each story is paired with a vintage black-and-white photograph capturing the mood after World War II when a day out meant breathing in the bracing salt air and feeding coins into the machines at the penny arcade.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in Brooklyn, Roslyn Bernstein moved to Long Beach, New York in 1948. She was raised in the West End of town, a short walking distance from the city's boardwalk, which runs for two miles along the ocean side of this barrier island. A poet and journalist, she has been a professor of Journalism and Creative Writing at Baruch College, CUNY, since 1974. Roslyn Bernstein earned a BA at Brandeis University and a MA and Ph.D. at New York University. She has served as the director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program at Baruch College since it was established in 1998.

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Blue Eft Press (June 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 098405460X
• ISBN-13: 978-0984054602
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,723,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ROSLYN BERNSTEIN

Born in Brooklyn, Roslyn Bernstein moved to Long Beach, New York in 1948. She was raised in the West End of town, a short walking distance from the city's boardwalk, which runs for two miles along the ocean side of this barrier island.

A poet and journalist, she has been a professor of Journalism and Creative Writing at Baruch College, CUNY, since 1974. She also teaches at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Roslyn Bernstein earned a BA at Brandeis University in Political Science and a MA and Ph.D. in English at New York University.

She has served as the director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program (www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/harman )at Baruch College since it was established in 1998. Roslyn Bernstein's faculty bio can be found on the Baruch website at:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/academics/journalism/rbernstein.htm

In 2009, Roslyn Bernstein published Boardwalk Stories, a collection of 14 linked tales set in the years 1950-1970. www.blueeftpress.com

Praise for Boardwalk Stories:
New York Times Metro writer Alan Feuer ("Finding Life on the Water, and Off," 8/16/09) wrote that Boardwalk Stories "uses [Bernstein's] sunburned memories of childhood as their narrative core."

Roslyn Bernstein has just written(July 2010), Illegal Living: 80 Wooster Street and the Evolution of SoHo, co-authored with the architect Shael Shapiro. More information on the book, the biography of the first successful artist coop building in SoHo,NYC can be found at: www.illegalliving.com.
The book was published by the Jonas Mekas Foundation.

Praise for Illegal Living
"They say real estate makes you crazy, and the artist-developer George Maciunas was wonderfully crazy, inventing the artist's loft and changing the face of SoHo forever. Illegal Living brilliantly captures the birth, middle age and --some would say --death of SoHo, a portrait of an entire way of life through a single building."

Christopher Gray, the Streetscapes columnist for the New York Times.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enchanted period, charmingly written about, July 6, 2009

By 

handsomenosnah - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boardwalk Stories (Paperback)

Both funny and melancholy, the tales of these boardwalk characters grow slowly in complexity. Each story is so densely packed with vivid detail of place, time, event and character that it's impossible to remain outside a world where sand follows you to bed and winning a small radio at the arcade makes you the luckiest person in the world.

In a period of twenty years, which seems at once both a poignant and enchanted time, Beverly Bridges grows on a poor neighborhood in a Beach town and fails to fulfill the grandiose destiny you'd expect her to live.

The thing is that, because we see the other characters in the book dealing with day-to-day heartbreak in a very realistic fashion, you may even be glad that Beverly, her boyfriend Arnold and the young kid who admires them are not superhuman but just like every other person you've met, and even freer. After all, they knowingly keep jobs that barely allow for luxuries such as electricity.

Each story, mind you, has a comic potential that reminded me of Woody Allen's RADIO DAYS. What to do, for instance, when you are an orphan awaiting to die next to a jewish boy? Or what if you've just met a thoroughly overweight woman and feel she'd like some company, would you invite her to dinner even if you know she'll be rejected by your boyfriend?

The answers are far from dramatic but, towards the end, you come to see that each seemingly insignificant action was also charged with a meaningful strike that ended up becoming Beverly's depth. Don't worry, though, there are no attempts to all-encompassing finales, just the realization, for us, that these characters' unique way of life has just been crafted into the stuff of legend.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boardwalk Stories, July 4, 2009

By 

Susan Bergman (Buffalo NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boardwalk Stories (Paperback)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Boardwalk Stories" by Roslyn Bernstein. The fictional characters really come alive, well-woven through the fourteen vignettes of small town life during the '50s to 70's. It left me
wondering what will become of Beverly and Arnold, the colorful couple
struggling with adulthood.

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but lacking fulfilling ending, June 7, 2011

By 

Lena Tumasyan "loyal patron" (NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boardwalk Stories (Paperback)

I love Long Beach. I always have and always will. I also really like Coney Island and I've visited the Jersey Shore as well as Atlantic City boardwalks. The description on the back of the book reads "Fourteen tales...invite us into the private lives of the colorful denizens of communities like Coney Island, Long Beach, the Jersey Shore, and California beach tons. I picked up this book because I was looking forward to fulfill my love of the boardwalk even more by reading stories of people's lives who lived there. I can honestly say this book is very different from what the cover made it to be.

PROS:
I like the in depth look of several people's lives. I love how sense of intimacy and danger we feel sitting in a living room of Communist supporters during the Cold War. I love the honesty of people who live and work in the arcade and how they truly believe they can't do anything else in life. I love the detailed descriptions of neighborhoods, people, places, their conversations, fears, and hopes. From the poor children's orphanage to the delusional ballerina, to the aspiring artists - the way time passes on the boardwalk is VERY closely reported to us. As I read this book I kept hoping and praying that the girl would get her gig, the guy would get the job, and the boy would get adopted. I too, have almost started "counting the world in nickels."

I also liked the old-world photos, however they needed captions.

CONS:
This book only goes in depth into one community over a short period of time - Long Beach, Long Island, NY. Not that I'm really complaining because I LOVE long beach. My problem is that I was also looking forward to Coney Island, Jersey, and California - and we don't get to see any of that. This is, in fact, a VERY local book and it helps to know the area (or have visited it at least once) before reading it.

The ending is SO Abrupt!!! This was my biggest problem. The entire time I'm reading it I realize that each story follows a character (or characters) and I REALLY feel so EMOTIONALLY close to them. I WANT them to end up happy. However, as tension builds about the possible collapse of boardwalk attractions, we never get to see what finally happens. I suppose it is safe to say that since there are currently no arcades, Ferris wheels, or fortune tellers on the boardwalk currently, then it all ended right after the Cold War. However, if I were someone who never visited the area, I WOULD want to know what really happened.

Moreso... This book NEEDS closure. Tell us what happens to the characters. Do they get married? Does the orphan get adopted? Does she get into show business? or dance? Do the girls stay friends? Does she ever reveal her life-changing secret? What happens in the years immediately following the last story, and into the late 90's?

Please Roslyn Bernstein, create a follow-up to this book or write me to tell me the ending.

Thank You.