OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile
Narrator Greg Baglia reads this nostalgic memoir of boyhood with a nod to its humor and a poke at the psychedelic colors of the cars, bikes, and common household products of the 1970s. The features and history of each product are described in minute detail in an uninflected, unemotional tone. In this ode to growing up in a suburb of Minneapolis, Baglia takes on the role of the author at the age of 8, expressing his boundless curiosity about the world around him. Rushin’s childhood is recounted with childish jokes and asides that range from silly to funny. Each scene is described exhaustively and delivered in one continuous stream, and the narrative is steady and intensely descriptive. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
05/08/2017
Best known for his back-page slice-of-life vignettes in Sports Illustrated, Rushin (author of The Caddie Was a Reindeer, an essay collection, and the novel The Pint Man) describes growing up in the 1970s. He employs such cultural references as Romper Stomper toys, the 1971 antilittering commercial featuring a Native-American (who it turned out was actually Italian-American) crying by the side of the road, the Sting Ray bike of the book’s title, and contemporaneous advertising jingles and adolescent chants (“Beans, beans the musical fruit... ”). Rushin uses his family as the book’s focal point, capturing the nonstop zaniness of growing up with four siblings in Bloomington, Minn. Some of these asides are funnier and more interesting than others, but ’70s kitsch and nostalgia are evident throughout, as for example in his family’s 1978 Ford simulated–wood-grain station wagon and a visit to the newly opened Disney World. But it’s Rushin’s dad, a child of the Depression, who steals the show. Whether quoting his father as he describes his five kids (“I have one redhead and four shitheads”) or retelling stories about him being drunk on what was the then new Boeing 747, it’s through his father that Rushin captures the mystery and magic of childhood. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (July)
From the Publisher
Praise for Sting-Ray Afternoons
One of the Best Books of the Year: Amazon, Gold Digest, Minnesota Public Radio
"If you existed in the 1970s and had any awareness of the world around you, Steve Rushin's Sting-Ray Afternoons is going to hit you like the smell of Clairol Herbal Essence Shampoo. Smart as heck, laugh out loud funny and warm, Steve Rushin does for 1970s childhoods what Jean Shepherd did for 1940s Christmas. This book is nothing short of a Nadia Comenici Perfect 10."—Julie Klam, author of The Stars in Our Eyes and the New York Times bestseller You Had Me at Woof
"Steve Rushin's Sting Ray Afternoons is a fun and often hilarious account of growing up in the midwest in the 1970s. Throughout the book I was pleasantly reminded of things from my own past-Rushin revisits the TV shows, the toys, the games of the era while telling his family's own story. Sting Ray Afternoon captures both the freedom of youth and the universal longing for experience in a bigger, more adult world. If you grew up in the 1970s, prepare to have your memory triggered."—Craig Finn, songwriter and guitarist, The Hold Steady
"Charming and heartfelt, hilarious and touching, Rushin's Sting-Ray Afternoons is a pitch-perfect portrait of growing up in middle America during the Brady Bunch era. A gem of a memoir, a tribute to family, and a delectable slice of American history."—Nina Sankovitch, author of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair and The Lowells of Massachusetts
"[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
"Rushin may not have been able to compete with his athletic older brothers for glory on the playing field, but he pleased his parents with a talent for puns and other wordplay... The nostalgic sweetness of his memories...provides convincing evidence that life in the '70s wasn't as chaotic as it's often made out to be."—Kirkus Reviews
"Rushin uses his family as the book's focal point, capturing the nonstop zaniness of growing up with four siblings.... But it's Rushin's dad, a child of the Depression, who steals the show. Whether quoting his father as he describes his five kids...or retelling stories about him being drunk on what was the then new Boeing 747, it's through his father that Rushin captures the mystery and magic of childhood."—Publishers Weekly
"A wild ride through [Rushin's] '70s boyhood in fast-growing Bloomington, Minnesota.... Fiercely funny memoir about family, sports, music, food and fads."—Priscilla Kipp, BookPage
"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
A "touching nostalgic memoir.... A vivid and comedic approach to [Rushin's] personal touchstones for the era."—CBC Radio's "Day Six"
"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
"A humorous and poignant account of growing up in the 1970s."—Carole Goldberg, Hartford Courant
"Rushin's use of the English language not only paints a complete picture of what it was like to score a touchdown in a game of football in the front yard or get that strikeout in garage but connects those who grew up in a different time."—Jason Olson, Sun Current
"A warm-yet-bittersweet fun-loving-yet-elegiac look at life.... A hell of a good spin in the wayback machine."—Signature Reads
"Crisply written.... A moving account."—Douglas J. Johnston, Winnipeg Free Press
"Rushin's takes on artificially colored culture are laced equally with humor and affection, and he captures both the wonder and fear at the tipping point between childhood and adolescence. Sting-Ray Afternoons is the best kind of nostalgia: celebratory yet clear-eyed, wistful but not overly sentimental."—Amazon's Omnivoracious Blog
"He has an amazing way with words... Reading it made me nostalgic for a special time in my life."—Eddie Gossage, President of Texas Motor Speedway on Dallas News' "Read Any Good Books Lately?"
OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile
Narrator Greg Baglia reads this nostalgic memoir of boyhood with a nod to its humor and a poke at the psychedelic colors of the cars, bikes, and common household products of the 1970s. The features and history of each product are described in minute detail in an uninflected, unemotional tone. In this ode to growing up in a suburb of Minneapolis, Baglia takes on the role of the author at the age of 8, expressing his boundless curiosity about the world around him. Rushin’s childhood is recounted with childish jokes and asides that range from silly to funny. Each scene is described exhaustively and delivered in one continuous stream, and the narrative is steady and intensely descriptive. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2017-05-09
An award-winning sportswriter looks back, mostly fondly, at a childhood in the 1970s in a Minnesota suburb.As the anxious middle child in a Catholic family with four boys and one girl, overseen by a housewife mother and a father who traveled around the world selling eight-track tape for 3M, Sports Illustrated writer Rushin (The 34-Ton Bat: The Story of Baseball as Told Through Bobbleheads, Cracker Jacks, Jockstraps, Eye Black, and 375 Other Strange and Unforgettable Objects, 2013, etc.) may not have been able to compete with his athletic older brothers for glory on the playing field, but he pleased his parents with a talent for puns and other wordplay and himself with a collection of baseball cards. For a future sportswriter, he had the good fortune to grow up in Bloomington when the city was home to all the major Minnesota sports teams: the Vikings, the Twins, and the North Stars. While Rushin still appears to bear a bit of resentment toward his oldest brother, the administrator of the "Indian Burn" and the "Dutch Rub," he clearly respects and admires his lovingly involved father and particularly his mother, with her concern that her children should avoid the awful fate of being perceived as "hillbillies." The author devotes much of the narrative to the pop culture of the 1970s: the titular bicycle, the candy cigarettes the boys brandished, the near worship of Farrah Fawcett, and the fear-inspiring experiences of seeing The Poseidon Adventure and Jaws on the big screen. Although frequent sidetracks into generic comments on life in middle America (the absence of seat belt use and the frequency of smoking) and asides about the history of Midwest-created objects such as the Nerf ball and the Weber grill sometimes detract from the author's personal story, the nostalgic sweetness of his memories carries the book along comfortably. Rushin provides convincing evidence that life in the '70s wasn't as chaotic as it's often made out to be.
