Our twelve-year-old narrator, an aspiring writer, is at a wake. He takes in the death of his beloved grandfather, Pop, a larger-than-life figure. The overflowing crowdâa sign of a life well livedâcomprises sandhogs in their muddy work boots, Irish grandmothers in black dresses, cops in uniform, members of the family deep in mourning. He watches it all, not yet realizing how this Irish American world defines who he is and who he will become. His older brother Tommy has no patience for rules and domesticities, his father is emotionally elsewhere. This boy knows heâs the best thing his motherâs got, though her sadness envelops them both.
In A Kid from Marlboro Road, past and present intermingle as family stories are told and retold. The narrative careens between the prior generationâs colorful sojourns in the Bronx and Hellâs Kitchen and the softer world of Gibson, the town on Long Island where they live now. There are scenes in the Rockaways, at Belmont racetrack, and in Montauk. Edward Burnsâs buoyant first novel is a bildungsroman, yet out of one boyâs story a collective warmth emerges, a certain kind of American tale, raucous and joyous.
With eight pages of photographs of the family members and historical locations that inspired characters and scenes in the novel.
âBurns ⊠[weaves] together a series of bittersweet, personal, and wryly humorous episodes into a portrait of the titular kid who grew up on Marlboro Road and must have been the most perceptive person there. ⊠Endearing and insightful.ââKirkus Reviews
This audiobook includes a supplemental PDF.