Customer Reviews

Boardwalk Stories

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I only visited Long Beach in the late 1990s and had never heard of a "skeeball arcade" before. When reading this book, I could feel and smell the boardwalk: the sea breeze, the musty smell inside waterfront buildings, the hot dogs, and the melancholic feeling on rainy days or out of season. The author also masterfully brings to life the petty bourgeois mentality of the 1950s and 1960s and the anti-Communist paranoia, which I only know from documentaries. I consciously studied the photos only after finishing the book, and it all fits perfectly. I am not sure what I enjoyed more - the dense atmosphere or the intertwined stories of the characters. In the scarce time I have to read fiction, I rarely find myself rereading an earlier chapter but I did it here. A great book!

This book and its pictures brought back so many memories of growing up in Long Beach. While I didn't share the experiences related, I remembered those places and what I experienced going to the Boardwalk arcades and rides- being a lifeguard on those beaches and then just enjoying the exceptional story-telling. I recommend this highly and look forward to future books by this author. Enjoy! Doug G

This book was a fun read. I'm not a beach-going person, but I was captivated by the people in the stories. They seemed so real I kept wondering and worrying about them as if they were friends. And I was concerned about how they would manage their jobs and romances. Will the couples stay together? Will the orphan find a home? Will the old friends reconcile? Like life, the stories are incomplete and the future uncertain. But if the author writes a sequel, I'll happily come back to hang out on the boardwalk, eavesdropping on the conversations and the dreams while hoping to learn of happy outcomes.