Helpful Score: 2
As an enormous fan of MOLOKA'I and HONOLULU, I wanted to love PALISADES PARK...unfortunately it was a very disappointing read.
This was a nostalgia-laced snooze fest for me. I gave it 100 pages, but was bored, bored, bored. The family story was too slow and had too low a pulse to engage me and hold my interest. I didn't really care about them enough to keep forcing myself to turn the pages, so I had to move on.
Nevertheless, I will be one of the first in line for Alan Brennert's next book!
This was a nostalgia-laced snooze fest for me. I gave it 100 pages, but was bored, bored, bored. The family story was too slow and had too low a pulse to engage me and hold my interest. I didn't really care about them enough to keep forcing myself to turn the pages, so I had to move on.
Nevertheless, I will be one of the first in line for Alan Brennert's next book!
Helpful Score: 2
Loved the book. I moved to Fort Lee, NJ the year that Palisades Park closed; so, I loved all of the references to Palisades Park, Cliffside Park, Fort Lee, etc. The history of the park was so interesting and informative. I would highly recommend this book.
Helpful Score: 2
Brennert calls this book "a love letter to a cherished part of my childhood". Book is a fictional account of the Park from 1930 through its closing in the 70's. It follows a family which made its living at the park and the people they encounter. Although it is fiction, many of the people and events are taken from history. It is an interesting look at entertainment and the people who created it.
Helpful Score: 2
I grew up across the river from Palisades Park, and although I never got to go there - we'd visit Rye Playland instead - it was as much a monument in the NYC area as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Except that it was more beautiful and much more exciting.
I loved Toni's story. She was a great heroine, and I loved the very colorful cast of family and friends that completed the cast. I grew up with these same people!
I remember climbing cliffs and swimming in the Hudson. It was a time when we could have colorful mentors like Bunty and Eddie - without question or suspicion.
And I remember how the events of that time affected us all, too, from learning how to duck and cover in case of a nuclear attack to the civil rights movement.
I do agree though, that the star of the book was The Park. And after all those years I finally feel as though I was able to visit.
Even now, whenever I drive the West Side Highway I still look across the Hudson to that spot on top of the Palisades and even though there are a couple of ugly apartment buildings crowning that spot now, I see only the colored lights of Palisades Park.
I loved Toni's story. She was a great heroine, and I loved the very colorful cast of family and friends that completed the cast. I grew up with these same people!
I remember climbing cliffs and swimming in the Hudson. It was a time when we could have colorful mentors like Bunty and Eddie - without question or suspicion.
And I remember how the events of that time affected us all, too, from learning how to duck and cover in case of a nuclear attack to the civil rights movement.
I do agree though, that the star of the book was The Park. And after all those years I finally feel as though I was able to visit.
Even now, whenever I drive the West Side Highway I still look across the Hudson to that spot on top of the Palisades and even though there are a couple of ugly apartment buildings crowning that spot now, I see only the colored lights of Palisades Park.
