A Long Island Story

Ok, I'm abandoning this one: the first chapter feels like a jumble of cut-and-pasted chunks randomly pushed together, and while the second chapter does smooth out, the whole thing feels so dull and bland and nothingy. <br /><br />I requested this from NetGalley due to cover-love and the enticing blurb of McCarthyism and a marriage in crisis but really the McCarthy witch-hunts can barely even be called background other than as a plot device to force the family to move from Washington. <br /><br />Characters come and go, none of them has any depth or personality, and the style just gets bogged down in 'telling' and laborious details ('Harriet Silber had been informed, several times, that Michelle would supply coffee and cake before they came round at eleven-thirty, nevertheless a pot of coffee was on the table plus a plate of pastries'). POV jumps between characters in haphazard ways. <br /><br />The prose swings wildly between overwritten ('the billboards on the side of the road <u>pimping boisterously</u> for Nabisco Oreo Cookies') and patchily disconnected. <br /><br />I'm normally fascinated by 'marriage-in-crisis' narratives but even that barely makes a ripple in this book: people snap a bit and sulk and whinge but none of it ever becomes either coherent or even interesting. <br /><br />Abandoned at about 30% and even a skim-read through to the end didn't make me feel like I'd missed anything. <br /><br />ARC via NetGalley

Rick is a long time personal friend of mine. He has written a number of books and one other novel. This book is clearly a semi-autobiographical work about life in a suburban Jewish family in the post-war USA. The language is clear and precise...I wish he could have developed his characters better. But the book clearly reflects the tensions in the era when Communists were being hunted in the government- a very scary time.<br /><br />I also recommend Rick's first novel, Darke. This is a much deeper investigation of a person living in the UK...beautifully written.

I loved <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1890686901" rel="nofollow noopener">Darke</a> so jumped at the chance to read a proof copy of Rick Gekoski’s second novel. But in the end I only read the first 35 pages – not even the whole (long) first chapter. From the blurb I was hoping for a snappy 1950s-set family drama with some turbulent political background. This just shows you how desperately important it is to have a solid first chapter. I liked our first introduction to mother Addie and father Ben, who works for the Department of Justice but has ambitions as a writer so stays up until all hours typing. They drive out early one summer morning to Long Island to stay with Addie’s parents, Maurice and Perle, at their bungalow. Kids Becca and Jake soon work out that this is not just a summer vacation; they’re in Long Island to stay.<br /><br />The kids call their parents by their first names and their speech doesn’t seem natural. The flashbacks to previous visits to Maurice and Perle are jumpy and don’t add a lot to our understanding of this family. Ultimately I didn’t sense a lot of promise. It’s interesting to read in the acknowledgements at the end of the book that Gekoski originally tried writing this as a memoir of his 1950s childhood. I think that would have resulted in a book I was much more interested in reading.<br /><br /><b>Favorite passage</b> (on Ben and Addie’s early marriage): “it had been a wonderful period of a few years, in the sunny climes of passionate engagement. And then the rains came, and everything was washed away. The rains were first called Jacob and then Rebecca, like the names of those hurricanes that sweep up the East Coast, buffeting. The end of sleep, and peace, and happiness.”

Oh, I'm the first one to review this, how exciting. After a consistent streak of speculative fiction I was ready for some proper literature and this did the trick. A methodically plotted and meticulously executed story of a struggling marriage set in the summer of 1953 against the backdrop of McCarthy’s witch trials…this novel turned out to be a fictionalized autobiographical account of the author’s childhood, something the readers don’t get to find out until the afterword. So the author’s fictionalized counterpart is Jake, a precocious 10 year old, but the novel isn’t told from his perspective, it’s very much an adult world with adult crises, the main one of which seems to be the reconciliation of what dreams and reality, the what might have beens against what is, even city against suburb works here as a metaphor for reluctantly accepting life’s currents. This is a very quiet sort of story, not much action of any sort, purely character driven work, but as such it’s very well done and even when the characters aren’t immediately or easily likeable they are compelling in their struggles and battles. Representationally the book does a terrific job of recreating a place in time and presenting fraught family dynamics that are essentially placeless and timeless. Nevertheless, because it’s such an internal sort of narrative, it makes for quite heavy reading and you should really be in the mood for it, otherwise it may end up seeming as plodding and tedious as the actual Long Island. I found myself enjoying this book, it was psychologically well observed and emotionally intelligent and suited the mood for a slow afternoon read. Thanks Netgalley.

<b>Will the real Rick Gekoski please stand up?</b><br /><br />Anyone who’s read Rick Gekoski’s previous novel <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/32670966.Darke" title="Darke by Rick Gekoski" rel="noopener">Darke</a> will remember a savagely biting tale of a man one loves to hate. Can this possibly be the same Rick Gekoski who has written this inconsequential novel of a marriage falling apart? A novel that promised a story of its time (the McCarthy era – hardly touched upon), a story of its place (no sense of the setting whatsoever), a story of a Jewish family in crisis (emotional depth – nada). <br /><br />The writing here is virtually all ‘tell’ and no ‘show’. The dialogue is unconvincing (despite being generously sprinkled with authentic Yiddish), the under-developed characters are all pretty dislikeable and the plot goes nowhere. The author’s end-note tells us that this is semi-autobiographical so to cut Mr Gekoski some slack, perhaps he was just too close to the material. But after this lightweight piece, I do hope he returns to the Darke.<br /><br />My thanks to Canongate for the review copy courtesy of NetGalley.<br />

The Grossmans are "an archetypal leftist family." Ben Grossman's socialist politics becomes a liability in 1953 when Senator McCarthy is targeting 'communist sympathizers.' It was time for him to leave his job in the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Ben had dreamed of being a writer, but with a wife and children to support, his option is to pass the New York State bar and open a law practice. Long Island, NY is burgeoning with post-war housing in suburban communities, the perfect place to start his practice. <br /><br />His wife, Addie, however, longs for the excitement of the city. She gave up enough for her marriage and hardly remembers who she was. She never bargained for the sterility and conformity of the suburban desert. Ben and Addie's marriage has been coming apart for a long time, and this decision is one more indication of the disintegration.<br /><br />Ben and Addie and the kids move in with Ben's folks while they find housing.<br /><br />Ben's dad tells his grandkids stories of the Cossacks driving his family to find shelter in America. To make ends met, he built a business selling knock-off fashion apparel. Facing heart problems, he wants out, but it comes at a price.<br /><br />A Long Island Story is a study of a family in crisis, caught in a time when people's "insatiable need for someone to blame" and have a craving for "something to fear and a leader to protect them from it." Addie thinks, "The next thing you knew one of them would be in the White House, as good old H. L. Mencken had predicted thirty years ago: a moron." <br /><br />Ben must decide on what he really values. Addie must decide what she is willing to give up. And their children must learn to walk the narrow line between personal values and societal demands. <br /><br />Author Rick Gekoski was inspired by his own family story, based on his childhood memories, liberally fictionalized.<br /><br />I enjoyed the detailed description of the time, but this is not historical fiction as much as the story of a marriage. The novel is character-driven with psychological insight. <br /><br />I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Despite the title, the setting of Long Island doesn’t really shine in this book - it’s more the story of a marriage and a failing one at that. A family who live on Long Island try to live the American dream and live in the Long Island post-war housing that is so popular in this uncertain political era. ben would like to be a writer but he settles for opening a law practice on the island. This is not the dream for Addie, his wife, however. She sees Long island as a suburban desert, lacking the excitement of the big city. This is a family in flux in every meaning of the word.<br /><br />The political background is there in the distance - the uncertainty and the fear of the outside world. The hopes and dreams of that man in the White House who should be able to save them from the worst.<br /><br />The story reads well - this is apparently a heavily fictionalised account of the own author’s upbringing. Not sure to what extent but that’s probably best left undiscovered. It’s a family in crisis, a family on the rocks and the ups and downs of the American dream. Not the story about Long Island I’d hoped for, but an insightful look into where it all goes wrong.

An extended family deals with changes in McCarthy era America. Partially autobiographical the story is a little light on depth. #netgalley #longislandstory

As a gal from Long Island herself who left when I was a teenager, I love reading books about my birthplace. This book didn't let me down. I've spent a lot of time in D.C. and can understand why people would need a break. Ambition, the hardness of the area can make you get caught up and forget what is important. Only by slowing down does someone see the realities of what their lives really consist of and what needs to change. A Long Island Story is this book.<br /><br />As a mother, a wife of a non-politician who works in politics I really identified with Addie without the negativity. Mother's lose themselves if they aren't careful we get sucked into the identities of the people we are raising, the person we are married to that we forget to take care of ourselves and sometimes become lost and more selfish that we should be. That selfishness comes out by nitpicking, trying to get people to do things the way you think they out to do things and that negativity can kill a relationship that might have been thriving beforehand. <br /><br />Rick Gekoski covers a deep and diverse area of marriage and takes you into the underbelly of how people relate to each other. I didn't read his debut novel Darke however I might be doing so now. <br /><br />A Long Island Story was well written with its lyrical styling. Some of the sentences were so musical that sometimes painted a picture that you could not help but forget the tragicness of the whole family dynamic.<br /><br />My only critic would be that sometimes the characters felt as if they weren't fleshed out enough. Sometimes I wanted more from them and for them. Maybe that is just how the book should be though. <br /><br />Thanks, NetGalley, Rick Gekoski and Cannongate Books for allowing me to read A Long Island Story in lieu of my honest review.

Don't let this book fool you, living on Long Island is not the hell or purgatory some of the characters in this book make it out to be. Long Island is a lovely place to live. But I'm not here to write a review of Long Island, but of <i>A Long Island Story</i> by Rick Gekoski. Ben and Addie Grossman, and their two children, Jake and Becca, are taking the summer of 1953 to move from Alexandria, VA to Huntington, LI. Ben is a lawyer for the Justice Department. He is left leaning, and has communist sensibilities and sympathies. As Senator Joseph McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities Committee is in full swing, Ben deems it advantageous to get out of DC, and set up a private practice on Long Island, before he is forced out. As with every summer, they will stay with Addie's parents, Morrie and Perle, in their cramped bungalow, with Ben returning to DC during the week to wrap things up. The thing is, no one wants to move. Addie is feeling stifled by her marriage and by the move. She's a city girl that can't fathom living away from it. Ben is a failed writer, who feels stifled by Addie's seemingly ceaseless unhappiness. And the kids don't like change. Over the course of the summer, family and personal reckonings must happen, if anyone in the family can see to make life bearable. Gekoski weaves all major characters' points-of-view throughout, toggling back and forth with each paragraph. This allows for everyone to express themselves, as Gekoski is showing the distances between people, even the ones we love, and how those distances keep people unknown. But the distancing effect also affects the writing, and that keeps the characters and their predicaments at a reserve. So while the temperatures rise that summer it's the cooler heads that prevail. In the end, Long Island doesn't get the short end of the stick. It becomes home.