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)
Jill Eisenstadt’s debut, From Rockaway, was bound by the nihilistic routines of a trio of lifeguards who spend their summers surveying New York’s Rockaway Beach. Though still young, their lives already seem decided, split between watching the waves and working blue-collar jobs in the cold months. Her latest, Swell, returns to the shore thirty years […]