Living on the Edge of the World: New Jersey Writers Take On the Garden State (Paperback)

by Irina Reyn (Editor)
Key Phrases: suburban legends, cranberry farming, New Jersey, New York, Fort Lee (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This collection proves that you can go home again, because when you are from New Jersey, you never really leave."

-- Mark Sceurman, Weird N.J.

"This funny, wistful, and appealingly oddball book covers more ground in New Jersey than the Turnpike. It's a fitting tribute to my beloved -- and deeply misunderstood -- home state."

-- Jancee Dunn, author of But Enough About Me...

Product Description
Mobsters. Big hair. The smelly Turnpike. The poor cousin of its glittering neighbor Manhattan. Could that really be all there is to New Jersey? In Living on the Edge of the World, the best and brightest young writers from the much maligned state answer back with edgy, irreverent pieces of nonfiction paying tribute to New Jersey's unique place in the cultural consciousness.

Like a drive along the Garden State Parkway, their stories travel to just about every corner of the state, from Princeton and Hillside to Camden and Hoboken. In "Straight Outta Garwood," Tom Perrotta writes of the near inescapability of returning to his home state again and again in his novels; in "Exit 15W," Joshua Braff tells how all roads led back to the Jersey Girl he'd fallen for as a seventh-grader; Kathleen DeMarco takes a nostalgic look at her grandfather's cranberry bog in "The Family Farm"; Jonathan Ames recounts a failed attempt to consummate his flirtation with a boardwalk beauty in "Rose of the Jersey Shore"; and Frederick Reiken offers an elegy to a high-rise in Fort Lee that opens his eyes to a new, dangerous world.

A celebration of all that's weird and wonderful about the Garden State -- including Bruce Springsteen, the Nets, the Jersey Devil, the films of Kevin Smith, and Great Adventure -- Living on the Edge of the World will have New Jerseyans everywhere ready to stand and be counted.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (June 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743291603
• ISBN-13: 978-0743291606
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #771,408 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars who says you can't go back, November 18, 2007

By	Mombo "Mombo" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This book is a series of short stories and most, if not all; will have autobiographical implications for those born and raised in the Garden State. Since each story has a different author, you have the experience of varying styles and perspectives.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars just okay, December 17, 2007

By	Joyce Ann Jacobs "Avid reader" (Jersey Girl) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had heard this authors on the radio and was looking forward to reading the collection but I was somewhat disappointed in the quality of the essays.