From Rockaway (Vintage Contemporaries) [Paperback]

Jill Eisenstadt (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A group of teenagers (who have spent their lives in "Rotaway" and are unlikely to ever get out) drink a lot, do a little dope and talk about sex. Only one of them is going to college, the rest are trapped on the beach or in the deli. PW noted the "energized despair" that resonates in this "finely tuned first novel."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Eisenstadt's fast-paced first novel chronicles the coming-of-age of four working-class Irish youths growing up in Far Rockaway during the early 1980s. The spirit of the time and place is well captured, and the numerous beach scenes (three of the main characters work as summer lifeguards) are extremely evocative. The characters lead emotionally eventful lives: Alex struggles to escape "Rotaway" on a college scholarship; Timmy searches for the father who abandoned him when he was an infant; Chowderhead temporarily adopts a precocious nine-year-old boy. Still, the reader waits for some major, unifying development. Suddenly emerging as accomplished in her craft, Eisenstadt closes with three excellent chapters, tying in the random elements and providing an unexpected yet satisfying finish. Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (May 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394757610
• ISBN-13: 978-0394757612
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,426,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My view of Rockaway Life, July 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: From Rockaway (Hardcover)

I found this book at a garage sale, and I immediately bought it becuase I live in rockaway and I am I teenager. Much like the people potrayed in this story, I too am worried I will never "get out of Rockaway". Plenty of my friends go to the same bars and hangouts as the characters do, and at times we all have the same sense of hopelessness. I am a recent graduate of St. Francis de Sales, as are the characters. I just felt the book potraed a portion (not all) of Rockaway's youth very well and I find it one of my favorite books so far.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You'd have to live there, November 26, 2008

By 

Jack Young (Plainview, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From Rockaway (Hardcover)

You know, I bought about a dozen copies and sent them as holiday gifts to my buddies from FR... but if you had not grown up on the peninsula, the story wouldn't mean that much...

The author has an excellent memory and accurate perspective of life in Rockaway's, but a weak story line.

If you spent anytime between Bayswater and Belle Harbor, you'll get a bunch of smiles from this book -

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accurate feel for the '80s Rockaway era..., December 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: From Rockaway (Hardcover)

Good book. Takes place in a time of innocence, before plane crashes in Belle Harbor and NYC. Being From Rockaway myself, I'm a bit biased. Having grown up on 117th and the boardwalk (where much of the book takes place), I can picture the locales, as well as relate to select characters. As a teenager, I too spent my summer days surfing and nights drinking on the beach. A keg and a bonfire... we used the lifeguard chairs for firewood, would run from the police. Fun fun fun. Book being true to life, there really was nothing else to do in Rockaway. My old building overlooked the lifeguard "shack" on 117th, so I got a first-hand view of what went on. They are a different breed for sure.

"From Rockaway" accrately captures the flavor of '80s Rockaway Beach, NY-- through the eyes of local teens bored out of their skulls, looking for excitement. I'd recommend it to anyone who grew up in Rockaway and can remember Playland-- before it became a housing development.