Ellington Boulevard: A Novel in A-Flat (Hardcover)

by Adam Langer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
An apartment on West 106th Street (aka Ellington Boulevard) links a disparate group of New Yorkers in this intricate tale of life, love and real estate. Ike Morphy, a rent-controlled tenant at 84 West 106th Street, learns his apartment is being sold by hard-luck magnet Mark Masler, who, after inheriting the building from his deceased real estate developer father, learns Ike never signed a legal lease. Ike isn't happy about giving up the cheap digs so close to Central Park, where he walks his adopted pooch, Herbie Mann. (Herbie has his own history with the ensemble that swirls around the apartment.) Columbia veteran teaching assistant Darrell Schiff and his ambitious magazine editor wife, Rebecca Sugarman, meanwhile, are looking to move out of their cramped student housing apartment and into somewhere with enough space for an as-yet-unconceived child. Their broker, part-time actor Josh Dybnick, is hot to make a commission that'll put him closer to his dream of opening his own theater. Langer (Crossing California; The Washington Story) takes his time in developing the characters and the depths of their interconnectedness, rendering the twists, doubts and heartbreaks that afflict the milieu highly affecting. For readers who turn first on Sunday morning to the real estate section, it doesn't get much better. (Jan.)
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Review
Praise for Ellington Boulevard

“I loved this book, but then I’ve always been a sucker for quality. Adam Langer lifts the lid off the top of New York City and lets us see, close up, and terribly personally, the cosmopolitan complexity of the city that never sleeps alone. In his fuguelike charting of their lives—lives that cross, lives that double-cross—he reveals his love of all things New York: its people, its dogs, and, even more remarkably, its pigeons. The composition and orchestration that Mr. Langer has gifted us with would have delighted the Duke himself.”
—Larry Gelbart, creator of M*A*S*H, co-screenwriter of Tootsie, and Tony Award–winning author of City of Angels and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum


“Adam Langer’s new novel, Ellington Boulevard, captures all of Manhattan’s quirky insanity with great style and a huge amount of fun.”
—Barbara Corcoran


“Adam Langer took me on a wonderful trip all over the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The reader will meet musicians, actors, and even a dog named Herbie Mann—open the cover, read, and enjoy! This is his best book yet.”
—Eli Wallach


“Adam Langer, who is either a genius or a schizophrenic, inhabits his characters—from a pregnant woman to a pigeon—with brilliant stealth and lovable insouciance. Finally a book has come along that has gotten me excited about reading and even New York again.”
—Jennifer Belle, author of High Maintenance and Little Stalker


“I laughed out loud throughout this simultaneously cynical and sentimental New York fairy tale with a love for off-Broadway musicals and the seventeen-key clarinet, and a profound understanding of the importance of dogs.”
—Stephen Schwartz, Academy Award–winning lyricist and composer f... --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385522053
• ISBN-13: 978-0385522052
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #382,473 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The four-ring circus of New York captured in a novel, January 23, 2008

By	Judge Knott "judge_knott" (Upper West Side, NY, NY) - See all my reviews

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another literary triumph for Adam Langer., January 30, 2008

By	Jill Meyer (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Falls Far Short of Crossing California, June 26, 2008

By	W. Williams "Red Vine Junky" (Glencoe, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.