Sylvan Street: A Novel [Paperback]

Deborah Schupack (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2010

Read Deborah Schupack's posts on the Penguin Blog.

Nine neighbors; two ominous outsiders; one suitcase containing a million dollars

Deborah Schupack tells a provocative and suspenseful tale about what happens when cold, hard cash moves in next door. With page-turning storytelling, graceful prose and deep, true emotion, Sylvan Street explores the ultimate power- and limitations-of money. What these friendly suburban residents do with their newfound money, and what the money does with them, builds toward a revelatory conclusion: how the tensions between benevolence and greed, duty and desire, inform our every action and interaction. Readers of thrillers and character- driven dramas alike will find a sweet payoff in these pages.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Schupack (The Boy on the Bus) cleverly plays out in her latest what happens when you mix five sets of suburban New York neighbors with a suitcase full of cold cash. The large cast, while initially overwhelming, provides Schupack with bountiful opportunities for plots, counterplots, and all manner of nefarious doings as the neighbors decide what to do after finding a briefcase packed with $1 million in the new neighbors' back yard during a pool party. The page-turning pace never flags among the reproductively challenged wealthy couple, the bachelor artist, the overburdened family of seven, the retired schoolteachers, and the seemingly happy new neighbors. Schupack also provides a startling peek into the lives of the immigrants who inhabit an entirely different part of New York than domestic Sylvan Street. Teeming with plot twists and social unrest, Schupack shows with poignant prose and commendable plotting the good, the bad, and the ugly that money brings out in people. (May)
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About the Author

DEBORAH SCHUPACK is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, as well as numerous short stories and newspaper and magazine articles. She runs a copywriting firm, King Street Creative, and lives in the Lower Hudson Valley.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 337 pages
• Publisher: Plume (May 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452296285
• ISBN-13: 978-0452296282
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,724,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Deborah Schupack lives in the Hudson Valley, on an old-fashioned cul-de-sac much like the one she explores in her latest novel, SYLVAN STREET (minus the windfall one million dollars). She is also the author of THE BOY ON THE BUS, a critically acclaimed debut that James Patterson called, "my favorite book this year--an incredible page-turning idea, written with grace, style, and deep, true emotion."

Her nonfiction has appeared in, among other publications, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Redbook, seventeen and Working Woman. She has taught creative writing at Yale, Vermont College, NYU, the New School and Breadloaf's Young Writers Conference. In addition, she runs King Street Creative, Inc., a marketing copywriting company specializing in higher education, heath care and nonprofits.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spinning plates and sparkling prose, June 18, 2010

By 

Susan Schoenberger - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sylvan Street: A Novel (Paperback)

Deborah Schupack's Sylvan Street manages to be both modern and classic as five families face the moral dilemma of whether or not to spend a suitcase of money that doesn't belong to them. While their choices about how to spend the money move the complex plot along, this fast-paced novel is a great read because each family springs to life through deft descriptions and witty dialogue. Schupack keeps a lot of plates spinning -- including a wrenching sub plot about where the money came from -- but they all land perfectly in the end. A great read for book clubs interested in discussing the contradictory values of present-day suburbia.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Share This Book With Your Neighbors (or Book Club) and Ask: What You Would Do?, June 12, 2010

By 

CB "CB" (new york) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sylvan Street: A Novel (Paperback)

This is a terrific read-- a cul de sac in suburbia finds a briefcase with a million dollars in it at the neighborhood pool party. What do the neighbors do? What would you do? This is an in-depth character study of couples ranging from those in their early 30s to late 60s, from successful to retired, old and new neighbors grappling with major decisions about money and love and how it could (and does) change their lives. This novel will have you asking what you would do (it did to me!), what pacts would make with your neighbor? How well do you know those people who have chosen to spend your days living next to? And how does living in 21st century America, struggling with the vestiges of 9/11 (this cul de sac is just north of New York City); financial hardships, infertility, and the strains of marriage and kids, change when money, a lot of it, is suddenly yours? Sylvan Street interweaves these stories with poetic prose and compelling characters and creates a terrific summer read for you -- by your pool. Read it with your neighbors (or book club)!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars modern day nod to the Treasure of the Sierra Madre, May 30, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sylvan Street: A Novel (Paperback)

In Ashley-on-Hudson is the cul-de-sac Sylvan Street. Five families live in harmony in this suburban setting up the Hudson Valley from New York City. They are there for each other helping with their kids and more as everyone is a friend to everyone else. In fact Sylvan Street seems like a throwback to a more idyll almost naive era when suburbia was the goal of most Americans.

At a weekend pool party, a suitcase containing one million dollars is found and opened. Suddenly morality and family values prove meaningless as every one of the contenders scheme to possess the loot. Friends and families, the Levolices, the Canes, the Yanivs, the-Hansens, and the Margolis brood want to claim the cash. War has broken out on Sylvan Street.

With a modern day nod to the Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Traven's book and the Bogart movie), Sylvan Street is a great character study as greed and need supersede friendship and to a degree family loyalty. Readers will enjoy this fast-paced character driven saga of the American dream; as many on Main St. are angry at Wall St. but want to move to Wall St. and as angry at the Federal government but want the Feds to lead the cleaning of the Gulf using someone else's money; irony rules.

Harriet Klausner