Coming of Age in New Jersey PDF Download

Author: Michael Moffatt
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813513591
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
To present these thoughtfully crafted case studies of undergraduate culture, the author did what anthropologists usually do in more distant cultures: he lived among the natives. His findings are sometimes disturbing, potentially controversial, but somehow very believable. This text presents a vivid slice of life of what the author saw and heard in the dorms of a typical state university, Rutgers, in the 1980s.

Author: George B. Kirsch
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780741472427
Category : Hackensack (N.J.)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Six Guys is a memoir of friendship and a social history of Hackensack, New Jersey during the post-World War II era. Our group of six buddies met in elementary school and graduated from high school in 1963.

Author: Rich Ferguson
Publisher: Barnacle Book
ISBN: 9781942600534
Category : Bildungsromans
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Set amidst the backdrop of the troubled town of Blackwater, New Jersey, a Bruce Lee- and Bruce Springsteen-devoted young hero journeys toward adulthood in this devastating yet intelligent debut novel from poet and musician Rich Ferguson. New Jersey Me explores an ensemble cast of unique characters, including Blackwater's hometown nuclear power plant; a beauty named Baby; Baby's hell-bent-for-prison boyfriend, Terry; a Mary Kay mom high on Vicodin and Bloody Marys; and an old, old tree with a taste for blood. The son of the local police chief, Mark dreams of escaping the small town's conflicting and oppressive codes of manhood. In the meantime, though, Mark lives a boy's life, Blackwater-style: netting fish that have been killed by sudden coldwater emissions from the nuclear plant; kidnapping a chimp from the local circus; selling dirty socks to a local eccentric who may hold the key to Mark's escape; dating a one-legged girl; and observing the increasingly mysterious behavior of his best friend, Jimmy.

Author: Jerry McGrellis
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595422950
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Growing up in Jersey City, New Jersey, from 1966 to 1979, Tony quickly learns that there are few rules on the streets. A child born in the city has to learn fast, and Tony is no exception. The fictionalized memoir of author Jerry McGrellis speaks to the carefree days of the past while simultaneously focusing on the current problems of inner-city youth.

Author: Kerri Sullivan
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1978825609
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
New Jersey Fan Club is an eclectic anthology featuring personal essays, interviews, photographs, and comics from a diverse group of writers and artists. An exploration of how the same locale can shape people in different ways, it will inspire readers to look at the Garden State with fresh eyes.

Author: Frederick Reiken
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544149963
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
In Reiken’s “affectionate but tough-minded second novel, he captures the poetry of the New Jersey condition, circa 1980, with a rare precision” (The New York Times Book Review). A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year Romeo and Juliet in northern New Jersey? Yiddish constellations in Asbury Park? A garbage dump in the Meadowlands that’s filled with old musical instruments from a high school marching band? Love and sex, hockey and snorkeling, a family that is falling apart despite the best intentions—this is what Frederick Reiken has delivered in his brilliant second novel. But the real subject is true love, the one and only—known in Yiddish as b’shert. Anthony Rubin, the young protagonist, isn’t sure whether he’s found it with his neighbor, Juliette, daughter of a reputed Mafioso. His mother, who quits the family after her husband’s affair with a neighbor, doesn’t believe in true love at all. But his father does, and so does Anthony’s grandpa, who meets the love of his life at 78. Reiken is known for creating characters you feel you’ve known all your life, for mapping landscapes with profound intimacy and wonder. In The Lost Legends of New Jersey, he “reminds us that when good literature comes along, it feels, like true love itself, as if something legendary is occurring” (The Washington Post). “A beautifully told story of bad choices, good intentions, and the price of intimacy.” —Chicago Tribune “Reiken has created a rich, seductive mythology out of the ordinary places and people of the Garden State.” —Los Angeles Times

Author: Darnell L Moore
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568589492
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
From a leading journalist and activist comes a brave, beautifully wrought memoir. When Darnell Moore was fourteen, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire. They cornered him while he was walking home from school, harassed him because they thought he was gay, and poured a jug of gasoline on him. He escaped, but just barely. It wasn't the last time he would face death. Three decades later, Moore is an award-winning writer, a leading Black Lives Matter activist, and an advocate for justice and liberation. In No Ashes in the Fire, he shares the journey taken by that scared, bullied teenager who not only survived, but found his calling. Moore's transcendence over the myriad forces of repression that faced him is a testament to the grace and care of the people who loved him, and to his hometown, Camden, NJ, scarred and ignored but brimming with life. Moore reminds us that liberation is possible if we commit ourselves to fighting for it, and if we dream and create futures where those who survive on society's edges can thrive. No Ashes in the Fire is a story of beauty and hope-and an honest reckoning with family, with place, and with what it means to be free.

Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
Publisher: Akashic Books
ISBN: 1617750816
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Discover the darker side of the Garden State with this anthology of gritty mystery stories. Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each volume is compromised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the geographical area of the book. In New Jersey Noir, a star-studded cast of authors sifts through the hidden dirt of the Garden State. Featuring brand-new stories (and a few poems) by Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Safran Foer, Robert Pinsky, Edmund White & Michael Carroll, Richard Burgin, Pulitzer Prize–winner Paul Muldoon, Sheila Kohler, C.K. Williams, Gerald Stern, Lou Manfredo, S.A. Solomon, Bradford Morrow, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffrey Ford, S.J. Rozan, Barry N. Malzberg & Bill Pronzini, Hirsh Sawhney, and Robert Arellano. Praise for New Jersey Noir “Oates’s introduction to Akashic’s noir volume dedicated to the Garden State, with its evocative definition of the genre, is alone worth the price of the book . . . Highlights include Lou Manfredo’s “Soul Anatomy,” in which a politically connected rookie cop is involved in a fatal shooting in Camden; S.J. Rozan’s “New Day Newark,” in which an elderly woman takes a stand against two drug-dealing gangs; and Jonathan Santlofer’s “Lola,” in which a struggling Hoboken artist finds his muse . . . . Poems by C.K. Williams, Paul Muldoon, and others—plus photos by Gerald Slota—enhance this distinguished entry.” —Publishers Weekly “It was inevitable that this fine noir series would reach New Jersey. It took longer than some readers might have wanted, but, oh boy, was it worth the wait . . . More than most of the entries in the series, this volume is about mood and atmosphere more than it is about plot and character . . . It should go without saying that regular readers of the noir series will seek this one out, but beyond that, the book also serves as a very good introduction to what is a popular but often misunderstood term and style of writing.” —Booklist, Starred Review “A lovingly collected assortment of tales and poems that range from the disturbing to the darkly humorous.” —Shelf Awareness

Author: Scott Loring Sanders
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Finalist for Best Book of 2017 by CLMP’s Firecracker Award Just your average New Jersey childhood? Not exactly. A circus tiger attack, a schoolmate’s abduction, heartbreaking addicts, and a few close encounters with the seedier sides of humanity. Scott Loring Sanders’ suburban adolescence overflowed with perils: bone-crushing water slides, hitchhiking serial killers, a chilling collision in a ’71 Impala. From his tough, complex father to Sanders’ own reckoning of fatherhood and alcohol after leaving the Garden State, Surviving Jersey is a tour-de-force exploration of the risks that shape America’s youth. Praise for SURVIVING JERSEY: “Scott Loring Sanders’ Surviving Jersey brings…perilous locations vividly to life in an absorbing amalgam of ravenous tigers, crazy coincidences, memorable characters, and human folly. A good read for anyone from New Jersey, or anyone seeking a few compelling reasons to steer clear.” —Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic & Desire “Exuberant, gritty, and laugh-out-loud funny.” —Matthew Vollmer, author of Permanent Exhibit “We realize by the time we close this wonderful book that we have been reading not only about fear and human mistakes and how to survive despite them…but also about the richness of life, its connections and joys —the very things that help us hold onto hope for the future.” —Arts Fuse “Sanders’ brutal honesty is a hallmark and strength of Surviving Jersey. The book also gives the reader hope: If Sanders can survive and thrive despite the difficulties he encountered…then we all can.” —The Roanoke Times “Surviving Jersey takes one of the most fundamental human endeavors, to survive the hazards of our world, and applies it to hardy characters, risky decisions, and life-altering events. Its magic goes beyond asking Where are we going? and reminds us to also wonder: How did we make it to here?” —Sweet: A Literary Confection

Author: Kevin Brady
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781737816102
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
North End Boy is a fast-paced memoir about seven young friends coming of age in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The action takes place over two days in the summer of 1978 - a time before computers, before globalization, before the end of the Cold War - when most people still worked with their hands.At the beginning of the story, the friends are enjoying the late stages of an advanced adolescence with few ambitions and fewer responsibilities. Twenty-four hours later, they endure the loss of one of their own, a loss that forces adulthood upon them. Decisions have to be made - about families and careers, ultimately about their destiny. One embraces the family business. One moves out to California. One finds redemption in the Catholic Church. Another one doesn't. The author, Kevin Brady, was born and raised in the North End of Elizabeth, where his Irish immigrant parents settled after the war. An intensely local book, North End Boy is also a larger meditation on post-war America, as seen through the eyes of a young man with immigrant sensibilities and working-class roots.