A Long Island Story

by Rick Gekoski

Overview

It is 1953, a heat wave is sweeping across America and the Grossmans – Ben, Addie and their two children –are moving their lives from the political heart of Washington DC to suburban Long Island. Benny was a successful lawyer in the Department of Justice, but all that has come tumbling down. With the McCarthy era of paranoia, persecution and propaganda at its height, his past has come back to haunt him, forcing him to pack up his family and leave the capital behind. With their future uncertain, life in Long Island starts to open old wounds for Ben and Addie, both start to wonder if they were meant for more, whether their future might look different than they planned, and whether their marriage – their family – is worth fighting for . . . A Long Island Story is a portrait of a marriage in crisis, of a unique and fascinating period in US history and of a seemingly perfect family fighting their demons behind closed doors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786893420
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	07/03/2018
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Rick Gekoski is a writer, rare-book dealer and academic. He has written several widely praised non-fiction books including Staying Up, Tolkien's Gown, Outside of a Dog and Lost, Stolen or Shredded. His debut novel Darke was published in 2017 when Gekoski was 72 years old and was shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award.

Editorial Reviews

In A Long Island Story Gekoski turns a forensic eye on the subtlest nuances of family life and, in the process, introduces us to the fears, desires, and compromises of a generation. This is a deeply honest portrait of life, the big and the small of it, the sorrows and the joys

REBECCA F. JOHN

An immensely enjoyable elegy . . . done with precision and patience

SCOTSMAN

Will make you laugh out loud, when you're not in tears

THE TIMES

A brilliantly vivid creation . . . life-affirming and life-shattering

THE HERALD

‘An acute portrait of the uneasiness and claustrophobia of family life . . . Engrossingly readable’ The Times

‘What Gekoski brings . . . is subtlety and restraint, crafting an affectionate portrait of Jewish family life across generations. A quiet story, it's economically told and freighted with resonant themes’ Mail on Sunday

‘An engrossing read . . . An authentic portrayal of a particularly captivating time and place’ Financial Times

‘An affectionate portrait of the author’s family, drawing on Gekoski’s childhood in America . . . What the novel captures are the passing moments, the days we live in’ Spectator

‘In A Long Island Story Gekoski turns a forensic eye on the subtlest nuances of family life and, in the process, introduces us to the fears, desires, and compromises of a generation. This is a deeply honest portrait of life, the big and the small of it, the sorrows and the joys’ REBECCA F. JOHN, Costa-shortlisted author of The Haunting of Henry Twist

From the Publisher

This is a powerful novel, character rather than plot driven. The palpable tension arises from Gekoski’s taut prose and laser-focused insight into the minds and hearts of a dysfunctional household. He breathes life into this universe, revealing the people anecdotally.

Times Beacon Record

A consummate evocation of 1950s America. Both Joycian in its highly readable naturalism and Lawrentian in its candour and complexity, A Long Island Story is as absorbing as it is compelling.

Laura Carlin

An affectionate portrait of the author’s family, drawing on Gekoski’s childhood in America . . . What the novel captures are the passing moments, the days we live in.

Spectator

An acute portrait of the uneasiness and claustrophobia of family life . . . Engrossingly readable.

The Times

A Long Island Story is as much case history as novel. It is a hybrid, but, all told, an engaging one.

Newsday

Gekoski’s deceptively simple tale of a troubled marriage is elegantly crafted, and its deft portrait of 1950’s constraints and values masterfully conjures a rich atmosphere reminiscent of Richard Yates and John Cheever.

Booklist

In A Long Island Story Gekoski turns a forensic eye on the subtlest nuances of family life and, in the process, introduces us to the fears, desires, and compromises of a generation. This is a deeply honest portrait of life, the big and the small of it, the sorrows and the joys.

Rebecca F. John

An engrossing read . . . An authentic portrayal of a particularly captivating time and place.

Financial Times

What Gekoski brings . . . is subtlety and restraint, crafting an affectionate portrait of Jewish family life across generations. A quiet story, it's economically told and freighted with resonant themes.

Mail on Sunday

A wondrous book with two fathers, Kingsley Amis and Dante

SEBASTIAN BARRY

An immensely enjoyable elegy . . . done with precision and patience

Scotsman

PRAISE FOR DARKE :
I couldn't stop reading. Gekoski puts words together with a sure touch and deep craftsmanship

Philip Pullman

Staggeringly accomplished. Heartbreakingly true. A shockingly monumental first novel

JOHN NIVEN

A brilliantly vivid creation . . . life-affirming and life-shattering

The Herald