Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
A group of teenagers (who have spent their lives in ``Rotaway'' and are unlikely to ever get out) drink a lot, do a little dope and talk about sex. Only one of them is going to college, the rest are trapped on the beach or in the deli. PW noted the ``energized despair'' that resonates in this ``finely tuned first novel.'' (June)
Library Journal
Eisenstadt's fast-paced first novel chronicles the coming-of-age of four working-class Irish youths growing up in Far Rockaway during the early 1980s. The spirit of the time and place is well captured, and the numerous beach scenes (three of the main characters work as summer lifeguards) are extremely evocative. The characters lead emotionally eventful lives: Alex struggles to escape ``Rotaway'' on a college scholarship; Timmy searches for the father who abandoned him when he was an infant; Chowderhead temporarily adopts a precocious nine-year-old boy. Still, the reader waits for some major, unifying development. Suddenly emerging as accomplished in her craft, Eisenstadt closes with three excellent chapters, tying in the random elements and providing an unexpected yet satisfying finish. Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, ``Soho Weekly News,'' New York
