“Mr. Boardwalk” was one of those books I read slllooowwwlllyy. I didn’t want to finish....

Greenstein’s words come like the incessant clink-clink of boardwalk arcade games–a feast of sentences and paragraphs and pages that read like lunch: you eat them up. It’s a seduction, really, and one has no choice but to want to know the why, what, and oh, the where....

Read “Mr. Boardwalk” in summer if you want. Or, read it in the dead, cold of winter. Either way, you’ll hear the seagulls. You’ll people watch. You’ll lick an ice cream cone. You’ll hold hands on the boardwalk. And you’ll get a little sunburned, a little older, a little wiser.​

Having only recently moved to the North East, I failed to understand the magic that the boardwalk of days gone by evoked for local neighbors and friends. After reading Greenstein's novel, I now share their nostalgia for the demise of the pre-casino era. Not simply because it has all become too commercial but because now I too, after reading this novel, feel attached to boardwalk as it once was. Such is the charm and literary power of the author's writing. The characters and the setting have come to life. I have savored the pretzels, I have watched the juggling and want my fortunes read again.

If the purpose of a novel is to transport us to place and time we’ve never experienced and turn the last page transformed by the experience, then Mr. Boardwalk has achieved this exceptionally well.

It's rare when one can read a book and vividly visualize the scenarios page by page and chapter by chapter. But that's exactly what happened when I read "Mr. Boardwalk". I grew up in Philadelphia and spent my summers at the Jersey shore, very close to where Jason and his family set up shop each summer. So it was easy to read and sense at the same time--the smells of the boardwalk--cotton candy, the ocean and Coppertone, the sights of the piers and the shops; the constant roar of the ocean and the cry of the seagulls. The book was also a great read--it was well-written and nicely paced. And, it covered the spectrum of emotions--I definitely teared up at the end. If you've spent your summers near Atlantic City or the South Jersey shore, grown up in suburban Philadelphia, or just want to read a really good book, check this out.