It's the boom years of the 1980s, and life is closing in on Nathan Seltzer, who rarely travels beyond his suddenly gentrifying Lower East Side neighborhood in New York City. Between paralyzing bouts of claustrophobia, Nathan wonders whether he should cheat on his wife with Karoline, a German pastry maker whose parents may or may not have been Nazis. His father, Harry, is plotting with the 1960s boogaloo star Chow Mein Vega for the comeback of this dance craze. Meanwhile, a homicidal drug addict is terrorizing the neighborhood. With its cast of unforgettable characters, Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue is a comedy of cultures, of the old and the new. It's about struggling to hold on to life in a rapidly changing world, about food and sex, and about how our lives are shaped by love and guilt.
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"Remarkably fun and enjoyable book. Not an earth-mover, but a story whose quirky details and gentle themes have stuck with me for years. Entirely worth reading." — Nikki (4 out of 5 stars)
"Remarkably fun and enjoyable book. Not an earth-mover, but a story whose quirky details and gentle themes have stuck with me for years. Entirely worth reading."
“A joyful celebration of a New York neighborhood…[A] lively mix of cultures…Kurlansky knows how to make food sexy.”
“[A] riotous tale,,,a pitch-perfect symbol of culture clash. Alternately sociological and silly, Boogaloo is a hit.”
“An addictive read…smart, funny, [and] formidable.”
“Funny… poignant…spot-on writing.”
“[A] comedy of gentrification…a cocktail of Jews, Italians, Puerto Ricans, Poles, Germans, and Dominicans, of different eras, music and, above all, foods, clashing and conjoining…[Kurlansky] has admirably re-created the texture of the pre-boom neighborhood, with just the right mixture of sweet and tart, tangy and spicy.”
" This was too scratched up to finish. I got about a third of the way through and I liked what I heard. "
" I just couldn't get into it... I wish he had stuck with Cod. "
" I really enjoyed Kurlansky's non-fiction. He should probably stick to that and leave fiction alone. "
" This was a super fun book to listen to. I learned lots about NYC and jewish food. "
" I wanted to like this but it was shallow with unlikable characters. The recipe for Rigo Jancsi and the passages involving cooking are the saving graces. "
" This was a quick, witty read. "
" Listened to the audio book version on a trip out to the mountains back in 2005 and greatly enjoyed this debut novel by Kurlansky (author of the nonfiction works 'Cod' and 'Salt'). "
" Picked up this book due to the colorful interesting cover. I wasn't impressed by the story. "
" A brisk read. A sort of downtown Bonfire of the Vanities. "
" Listened to this book on tape and just found it completely uncompelling. Did not keep my attention at all and thought about not even finishing it. Didn't feel for or care about the characters or the story at all. "
" A clever, sometimes witty play on ethnic stereotypes in in New York. However there were too many characters so I got confused, and really... there was no plot. "
Mark Kurlansky is the author of thirty-five books, including fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books. He has received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Bon Appetit’s Food Writer of the Year Award, the James Beard Award, and the Glenfiddich Award.
George Guidall, winner of more than eighty AudioFile Earphones Awards, has won three of the prestigious Audie Award for Excellence in Audiobook Narration. In 2014 the Audio Publishers Association presented him with the Special Achievement Award for lifetime achievement/ During his thirty-year recording career he has recorded over 1,700 audiobooks, won multiple awards, been a mentor to many narrators, and shown by example the potential of fine storytelling. His forty-year acting career includes starring roles on Broadway, an Obie Award for best performance off Broadway, and frequent television appearances.
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