Customer Reviews

Ellington Boulevard: A Novel

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

 

 

Novelist Adam Langer arrived onto the literary scene with a bang a few years ago with "Crossing California," a novel about a gaggle of precocious yet sensitive teens growing up in Chicago during the waning years of the 1970's. Langer's first novel drew raves from critics across the country for his masterful blending of description (micro-precise); rhythm (alternately fast and slow); era-catching (bringing back the 1970's as though with his own 70-millimeter Technicolor film with Surround-Sound and disco balls); and comedy (laugh-out-loud...and I REALLY mean laugh-out-loud!).

Now we have "Ellington Boulevard," a witty, clever, and multi-charactered romp through the New York City real-estate world set in the present day. But Langer doesn't take the easy way out. It's actually a novel disguised as a musical. In other words, the author draws from two mediums (literature and musical comedy) to roll out a witty, up-and-down, where's-this-going-to-end-up tour through the Gotham City real estate scene.

Making it all the more clever is that--in this Marx Brothers-like dash through New York City's neighborhoods--a single apartment (with a rich history that is unknown to the characters but known to the reader) serves as the anchor to all the dashing around it.

As in his previous work, Langer returns with lots of likeable, fun-to-follow characters, sharp dialogues, enough ribaldry to make Ned Flanders blush, and all manner of humor. Sometimes the characters themselves know they're being funny and we laugh with them, and sometimes we laugh while the characters themselves aren't in on the joke.

"Ellison Boulevard" reads a bit like the stringing together of the five best "Seinfeld" episodes ever, while looping in maybe 20 minutes of "The French Connection" and 5 minutes from "Serpico." Langer's writing is so clever and page-turning that it feels more like you're watching things develop, then explode, rather than sitting with a novel in your hand reading.

Chalk up another supremely creative and witty novel for Mr. Langer.

When I heard Adam Langer was writing a third novel, I hoped it would be a continuation of the wonderful characters we met in Crossing California and Washington Story. Those books ended in the 1980's and I have wondered how they would "age".

Well, Langer moved his fiction from Chicago to New York, and introduced us to a new crew of characters, who interact around an apartment on the Upper-Upper West Side. And, "interact" they do. One of the joys of a Langer novel is the intersection - often in odd ways - of various characters.

The first reader review of the novel gives a better description of the book than I can here.

Though ALL the writing is fine, I'd like to praise Langer's portrayal of "Herbie Mann", Ike's dog. The last chapter - The Life of Mann - almost had me in tears with it's brilliance.

Thanks, Adam, for another glorious read.

I originally got into Adam Langer from his novel "Crossing California" which I fell in love with. I loved Langer's writing style and his realistic and humorous descriptions. However, I was a bit disappointed with 'Ellington Boulevard." I was super excited to read it but I quit about 3/4 of the way through, which is such a shame because I'm so close to finishing, which I will do someday soon but what is preventing me is the fact that he has a tendency to include many characters, almost too much in fact, which is a characteristic of postmodern literature but these characters are rather mundane and fail to draw the reader in to connect with them. Furthermore, towards the end, I felt like Langer was in a race against the clock to finish it. Towards the beginning he did a fine job developing character and introducing plot but towards the end he races through various events that jump from one to the next one, which would be fine if it was the consistency of the novel. I understand that this jumping from one event to the next is a means of conveying the climax, it is done so in a rushed manner. If you live in New York City and can relate to the geography that Langer offers then maybe you will find the novel just a touch more endearing, but in my opinion he has better work to offer.

Really enjoyed this novel - and as someone who has gone through the process of purchasing an apartment in Manhattan I'm not surprised that Langer was able to create a funny and insightful novel out of this source material.

Ellington Boulevard is a wonderful novel about the warfare involved in acquiring property in New York City. What I liked most about this book was the myriad of characters with all of their faults lovingly laid out and intersecting. The themes of music and musical comedy throughout are also very engaging. Overall, a fun and insightful read that gives the reader a beautiful picture of Manhattan.

When "Crossing California" was published, I thought that Langer might be one of the seminal voices of his generation. The characters were trenchant. The story--touching. The ending--sublime.

Then came "The Washington Story". And what a mess that was. The characters introduced in the first story had absoltely nothing to do in the second. One almost wishes that he could take a "literary mulligan". That is, return to the wonderful set of characters when he had something important to say. It worked with the film version of "Hulk"--why not here.

Alas, now comes "Ellington Boulevard". Again, Langer is able to introduce a set of nice, interesting characters. And they move along nicely throughout the first half of the book. But, alas, just like "The Washington Story", there comes a time that there is nothing for them to do. Instead, Langer pulls out all stops to create a world where coincidence rules and the unbelievable becomes common place. This book has more in common with the film "Enchanted" than it does with "Crossing California"--except that "Enchanted was more believable.

Bottom line: Langer hit a home run his first time at the plate. The second time he struck out badly. This time he has grounded out to third. He's a talented guy. Like to see what he writes the next time around. I only wish that he would remain true to his characters than make up a convoluted mess.

A 40 year old ex clarinet player gets threatened with eviction from his Manhattan Valley apartment along with his dog. The rest of book follows along with his trials and travails along with those of all the participants in this "real-estate" play. The technique of using acts of a play is a little kitschy but the writing is smart and the characters are well drawn. The novel is well-paced but the characters, though "smartly" developed, could have been even more fleshed out. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because it annoyed me that by the end of the book my favorite character hands down was the dog, Herbie Mann, and not either of the main characters, Ike and Rebecca.

I had recently read an article in the New York Times about about a young playwright who lived in 30 apartments in 20 years in Manhattan. I know this playwright and found the article exotic and gave me a bird's eye view of how much money New Yorkers spend on a few hundred square feet of living space.
When I started reading this book, Ike Morphy, a musician returns to his rented New York apartment only to learn that his inexpensive rental apartment has gone condo and selling for $650,000. It's a small apartment in a renovated area.
Adam Langer weaves a superb tale of New York with fascinating characters: the mortgage broker, the buyer, the seller and auxillary characters who add to the exciting mix. Combining academia, magazine politics, musicians, and most important, real estate razzle dazzle and then the bubble. The book reminded me of the movies Babel and Crash; the characters' lives eventually intertwine and serve up a big impact to the plot.
There are likeable and non-likeable characters: Darrell Schiff who is blatantly self-serving and obnoxious, Mark Masler, a womanizer, ex-alcoholic and observant Jew, who inherited his father's real estate but not his benevolence, and Herbie Mann, a dog, aka Lucky, who belogned to Chloe, who typifies the worst of magazine industry. Herbie Mann belongs to Ike the musician who is in love with Rebecca, Darrell's wife. Oh, and there are a pair of pigeons who roost outside the apartment/condo.
The novel is humorous and smart; the characters turn out to be the people they never thought they could become.

I have had Langer's first two novels, CALIFORNIA CROSSING and WASHINGTON SQUARE, on my to-read shelf for several years, but this book I bought because of the cover and title, not recognizing the author's name. As I started a month of reading New York-based books in preparation for November's trip I picked this one off the shelf, which is the story of an apartment on W. 106th Street, otherwise known as (Duke) Ellington Boulevard. The novel is interesting in that it tells the story of the apartment from several points of view, including the buyer, the seller, the tenant etc. This is clever and for the first half of the book its fun, with the coincidences between all the disparate types fun to contact. Of particular interest is the subplot of the gay broker and the magazine the buyer works for. Less interesting are the musical shenanigans of the tenant and the grad school problems of the buyer's husband. The second half begins to slow down until you see the laborious ending around the corner. Props, however, for the great NYC references and character types. Still looking forward to Langer's first two novels, which I promise I'll get to shortly.

I was surprised to see this book only has 9 reviews. I would've thought it was more popular, at least in NYC. In either case, I absolutely loved this book. It touches on lots of racial stereotypes yet it isn't racist, it is tactful. It talks about theater, jazz, art, NYC history, black and Latino rights, middle class, upper-middle class, intellectuals, life struggles. All beautifully wrapped up in a NYC-themed book: an apartment on Ellington Boulevard. Doesn't get more New York than that. If you love NYC, you will love this book.

What a glorious read. This book, mostly full of humor but with its share of pathos, concerns Manhattan's continuous uptown gentrification. The neighborhood is upper upper west side (according to real estate broker's description), and the flat in question is on West 106th now called Ellington Boulevard. Towards the end of the book there is a biography of the flat, the ups and downs of the building, the various inhabitants and how long they'd lived there. The characters here are its current tenant, his beloved dog, and the various participants in the sale of the flat. Even the pigeons roosting on the air conditioner's ledge are profiled. At times, Langer has a Dickensian flair for names (e.g., Miles Dimmelow -- says all you need to know about him). But the central character is New York, her charismatic qualities that entice her lovers to pay anything, put up with anything, just to live there.