Adam Langer – ~*LunaSea*~

Langer, Adam. Ellington Boulevard: a Novel in A-Flat. Spiegel and Grau, 2008.

Reason read: September is when the New York Gypsy Festival usually happens.

Ike Ambrose Morphy has been away from his beloved Manhattan for seven months while he cared for his dying mother in Chicago. In that short time, the New York he knew has changed dramatically. The off-limits parts of Central Park he used to frequent with his dog, Herbie Mann, are now patrolled by police. Right away you know Ike is headed for trouble. The hole in a particular fence he used to sneak through is no longer there so he has to cut a new hole. His carrying a tool for that? That’s new. The cop who caught him gives him a hard time about trespassing. That is also new. Even more disturbing, there are people in his apartment when he finally arrives back home; the place where he has never needed a lease or contract. It is no longer his apartment just as it is no longer his New York. Welcome to Ellington Boulevard. But Ellington Boulevard isn’t just Ike’s story. Readers will meet the buyer, her husband, the real estate agent (an out of work actor playing the part of a real estate salesperson even though his heart isn’t really in it), the broker and a bunch of other interesting characters. Readers will also get a few lessons in music history (like the inventor of the B-flat clarinet, Iwan Muller).
My initial complaint? Some of the characters in Ellington Boulevard were very cliché: stereotypical descriptions of the haves and have-nots. Mark Masler is a good example of that. My only other complaint about Ellington Boulevard? In a city as vast as the Big Apple is, I was surprised Herbie Mann’s world was so small. What are the chances that his current owner and previous owner would run in the same circles?

As an aside, I love any author that slips in a little Dr. Seuss (who remembers Gertrude McFuzz?).

Author fact: I am only reading two books by Adam Langer. I finished Crossing California earlier in the Challenge.

Book trivia: Ellington Boulevard uses real N.Y.C. locations like the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and the Untermyer Fountain to name a couple.

Setlist: 50 Cent, “Air Algiers” by Country Joe McDonald, Bruce Springsteen, Black Sabbath, Barry Manilow, Busta Rhymes, Beethoven, Beatles, Buddy Holly, Benny Goodman, Bob Dylan’s “Hard Times in New York Town,” “Conquering the City,” Cole Porter’s “I Happen To Like New York,” the Damage Manual’s “Sunset Gun,” Dave Matthews, Dokken, Easy-E, Eric Dolphy, the Game, Gil Scott-Heron’s “Blue Collar,” “Angola, Louisiana,” and “Winter in America,” “Hava Nagilah,” Hendrix, Herbie Mann, “Here I Go Again On My Own,” Ice Cube, ” (I Believe) I Can Fly,” “(I Wanna) Soar,” “(I’m a) Love Man,” “In the Court of the Crimson Kings,” John Mayer, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Keith Moon, King Crimson, Kurt Cobain, Kool & the Gang, Leonard Bernstein’s “Conquering the City,” Lake & Palmer, “A Little Night Music,” LL Cool J, Lou Reed’s “NYC Man,” “A Love Supreme,” Mozart, Mahavishnu Orchestra, “Merrily We Roll Along,” Moby, Mongo Santamaria, Nirvana, Nas, N.W.A., “Our time,” Ornette Coleman, Patti Smith, Paul McCartney, Peter Frampton, Peggy Lee, the Pogues, Procul Harem, the Prodigy, “Raisins and Almonds,” “Rough Boy,” Rovner!, Snoop Dogg, “Straight Outta Compton,” Sun Ra, Sidney Bechet, “Sunride, Sunset,” “(To Dream) The Impossible Dream,” Tupac’s “Resurrection,” U2’s “Yahweh,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” and “Crumbs From Your Table,” “Winds of Change,” “Wheels On the Bus (Go Round and Round),” “I’ve Seen All Good People” by Yes, “(You Are the) Wings Beneath My Wings,”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “New York City: a Taste of the Big Apple” (p 151).

Langer, Adam. Crossing California. Riverhead Books, 2004.

Reason read: You probably have never heard of Matt Vongsykeo, but when he was a teenager, he saved a baby from a burning car.

Meet the members of a Jewish community in Chicago, Illinois. Jill Wasserstrom is a liar. She told Lana she gave Muley Scott a hickey. Lana, the lied-to party, comes from a wealthy family (father is a radiologist, mother is a psychologist, and brother Larry was accepted into Brandeis). Lana wants to be an actor. Fake hickey recipient Muley wants to be a film maker and has a mother who works in the library and cleans houses for a living. Muley is in love with Jill. Jill’s father, Charlie, was fired from a restaurant job (owned by Alan Farbman) because he talked to a reviewer (Gail Schiffer-Bass) who he later marries. Jill’s sister, Michelle, is a tough cookie. Brandeis-accepted Larry wants to be a rock star drummer. The list of characters, some important, some not, goes on and on. It is this group of characters who drive the plot of Crossing California and make the story interesting. California Avenue itself (of Chicago, Illinois), lives and breathes like another character in Crossing California. This is a slice of Jewish life in a early 80s Chicago community at its best and worst.

Lines I liked, “She briefly considered going back, but she had her pride and besides, the door had locked behind her” (p 14).

Author fact: Crossing California is Langer’s first book.

Book trivia: Langer marks the era with punctuations of songs that were popular at the time. It is obvious he is a huge fan of music. Is Larry his doppelganger? See setlist for the music.

Setlist: Aerosmith, Al Jolson’s “California, Here I Come”, Al Stewart’s “On the Border”, “Angie”, Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”, Bach, “Back Door Man”, Barbra Streisand, the Beatles, Bill Haley and the Comets, Billy Joel’s “The Stranger”, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Bob Dylan’s “Seven Days”, Bobby Vinton, Boston, Bruce Springsteen, “Buttercup’s Song”, Cheap Trick, Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now”, Chuck Berry, Chuck Mangione, Clancy Brothers, the Clash, “Come Saturday Morning”, Dan Fogelberg, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”, David Crosby, Debbie Harry’s “Call Me”, Deep Purple, Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing”, “Dream On”, Edith Piaf’s “Non Je Regrette Rien”, Electric Light Orchestra, Elton John and Kiki Dee’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, Elvis, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, “Flirting with Disaster”, Foghat, Foreigner’s “Head Games”, Frank Sinatra, “Free Bird”, Gerard Lenorman, the Guess Who’s “American Woman” and “No Sugar”, Harry Belafonte, “Hava Nagilah”, Heart’s “Barracuda”, ” Herb Alpert, “Hey Ho Nobody Home”, “If I Were a Rich Man”, “In the Light”, “Is She Really Going Out with Him?”, Isaac Hayes, Jack Dupree, Jacques Brel, Jefferson Starship’s “Miracles”, Jethro Tull, Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown”, Jimmy Durante’s “Inka Dinka Doo”, John Denver’s “Annie’s Song”, John Entwistle, Johnny Hallyday, John Lennon, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow”, Kenny Jones, Kiss, “Le Freak (C’est Chic)”, “Learn How to Fall”, Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir”, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mahler’s Symphony #9, “Making Whoopie”, Mick Jagger, Modern Lovers, Molly Hatchet, “Mr. Bojangles”, Muddy Waters, Nazareth, Neil Diamond, “One Tin Soldier”, Paul Simon’s “Some Folks’ Lives Roll Easy”, Paul McCartney, Pete Seeger, Philip Glass, Pink Floyd, “Quando El Ray Nimrod”, “Raisins and Almonds”, Ray Charles’s “Hit the Road, Jack”, and “Georgia On My Mind”, “Refrain, Audacious Tar”, REO Speedwagon, Rod Stewart, Roger Daltry, Rolling Stones, Ron Woods, “Runaround Sue”, Rush’s “Fly By Night”, Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag”. “Shaft”, “Slow Ride”, “Squeezebox”, Styx’s “Come Sail Away with Me” and “Lorelei”, “Sunrise Sunset”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, Tom Paxton, Tommy Dorsey, “Top of the World”, “Tonight”, “Troika (Prokofiev’s Lieutenant)”, “Trouble in Mind”, the Who’s “Baba O’Riley”, “Music Must Change”. “Sister disco”, and “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, the Weavers, Wings, Working Man, Yes, “Y.M.C.A.”, “You’re in My Heart”, Yves Simon, and Zoltan Kodaly’s “Harry Janos Suite”.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in two places: “Maiden Voyages” (p 159) and again in “Teenage Times” (p 215).