Nights in White Castle

by Steve Rushin

Overview

Picking up where he left off in his acclaimed memoir Sting-Ray Afternoons, Steve Rushin brilliantly captures a bygone era, and the thrills of new adulthood in the early 80s.
It begins in Bloomington, Minnesota, with a 13-year-old kid staging his own author photo that he hopes will someday grace the cover of a book jacket. And it ends at a desk in the legendary Time & Life building, with that same boy-now in his early 20s and writing professionally-reflecting on how the hell he got there from what seems like a distant universe. In between, Steve Rushin whisks us along on an extraordinarily funny, tender, and altogether unforgettable journey.
From a menial summer job at suburban Bennigan's, to first-time college experiences in Milwaukee, to surviving early adulthood in seedy New York City, this deeply touching odyssey will remind any reader of those special moments when they too went from innocence to experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316419444
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	08/20/2019
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	853,667
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Steve Rushin is the author of Road Swing, which was named "Top 100 Sports Books of All Time". He previously worked for Sports Illustrated and has filed stories for the magazine from all seven continents, including Antarctica. His work has been anthologized in TheBest American Sports Writing, The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Magazine Writing collections, with essays appearing in Time magazine and The New York Times. He lives in Minnesota.

Editorial Reviews

07/22/2019

Following up Sting-Ray Afternoons, about his 1970s youth, Sports Illustrated writer Rushin explores his 1980s teen years in this humorous, lighthearted collection of anecdotes. Opening with a story about his brother and friend passing themselves off as counter attendants at the local White Castle and handing out free burgers to their high school classmates, Rushin captures the good-natured hijinks that were at the heart of his upbringing in Minnesota. Mixed in the with the relatable dynamic between him and his loving suburban parents, his good-natured siblings, and tight crew of hoops-playing, R&B-listening friends are a slew of pop culture references—including Prince, Van Halen, Larry Bird’s Celtics, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High—that will have 50-somethings nodding their heads. Some sections, such as the origin story of Chi-Chi’s Mexican restaurant, can feel out of place, but the thread of Rushin’s love of books and guileless hunger to write for Sports Illustrated—encouraged by his mother—provides a strong backbone for the lighter fare. Even with the fear of nuclear “warheads raining down on Kansas” at any moment, Rushin describes what seems to be a safer, simpler time. For nostalgic baby boomers, this is a joyful romp down memory lane. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Rushin's strength is his descriptive and playful prose."—The Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A joyful romp down memory lane."—Publishers Weekly

"A fun and nuanced coming-of-age story, Nights in White Castle offers a rollicking ride down memory lane."—Booklist

"Rushin's account captures many slices of life in a time fast receding into the depths of nostalgia. Survivors and fans of the era will find this to be a pleasing book of meaningful touchstones."—Kirkus

"[Rushin's] childhood, from the ages of 3 to 13, was perfectly encapsulated in the 1970s, and he celebrates the excesses and excitement of the decade with ardor.... Rushin's everykid upbringing and the touchstones of childhood he recounts make Sting-Ray Afternoons a fun-filled and charming trip."—Booklist

"In his funny, elegiac memoir Sting-Ray Afternoons, Rushin mines...ineffably familiar terrain with a sense of irony and deep affection, working hard to capture the look and feel of the 1970s...Much of what Rushin writes about - the Sears Christmas Wish Book, leaded gasoline, Johnny Carson's many vacations - will strike a chord with anyone who, like me, grew up in that era. What makes the book more than just late-baby-boomer nostalgia is the writing, which is knowing and funny."—Jim Zarroli, NPR

"Magnificent... You will not read a better book this summer - and maybe well into the fall and winter, too."—New York Post

"Sting-Ray Afternoons is [Rushin's] story of growing up in Bloomington in the 1970s. It's a lighthearted, sentimental look back at a Minnesota childhood with a twist of wryness... Rushin's told-with-a-smile stories of childhood are worth the trip: bundling into a snowmobile suit in winter, piling into the Ford LTD Country Squire for a cross-country summer vacation, making mild mischief with neighborhood friends, and one memorable disaster when nature called and wouldn't be kept waiting. All seen through that gauzy, yellowish filter that blurs memory with Dad's Super 8 movies."—Casey Common, Minneapolis Star Tribune

From the Publisher

2019-06-25
Building on Sting-Ray Afternoons (2017), Sports Illustrated writer Rushin continues his account of growing up in the 1980s heartland.

"To be in high school in the 1980s is to see yourself depicted in countless movies," writes Rushin, enumerating such now-classic films as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Breakfast Club before closing the thought: "confirming your place at the center of the culture." Sure enough: If the 1950s saw the birth of the teenager as concept and construct, the '80s saw its apotheosis. Rushin, with a light touch of the bittersweet, recounts that he wasn't quite the teenager of those films or of celebratory songs by the likes of the Stray Cats and Heaven 17. Instead, he writes, on the brink of adulthood, he was engrossed in books, jazz, and sports, longing not for a muscle car but for a muscle typewriter, an IBM Selectric II, "all that power in your right pinkie." The author faced most of the usual disappointments but also a couple of unusual victories, including praise from a tough-minded feature-writing teacher who sported "a wardrobe of shirts and ties evidently acquired on the newsroom set of All the President's Men" and, eventually, publication in Sports Illustrated, his home ever since. Rushin's account of a sibling-crowded, busy youth in suburban Minneapolis is affectionate and often funny. For example, he writes about resisting his parents' call to move out via the siren call of newly born cable TV, which urged instead that he lash himself to the basement and stay put, and of the other blandishments of junk culture, including processed-food sandwiches "tasting of salt and moist paper towel." Though without the gritty depth of Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City, situated a few years later, Rushin's account captures many slices of life in a time fast receding into the depths of nostalgia.

Survivors and fans of the era will find this to be a pleasing book of meaningful touchstones, from beer jingles to Porky's, love, and baseball.

Kirkus Reviews