ISBN: 978-1-60264-218-8 , softcover, $14.95. 278 pages
It's the late Sixties, the Beatles intact, Jimi Hendrix exploding and the Doors demanding the world. And on the East Coast, Asbury Park, New Jersey, will become the epicenter of a new brand of rock and roll.
But in January 1968, a boardwalk Liverpool lies in the future. Racial tensions, escalating crime and a fading reputation as a first-class resort have shaken the City by the Sea. Asbury is at tipping point. Cast down into the resort on a winter night, Sam Nesbitt, 22, arrives broke and homeless, but filled with musical ambition. Seeking shelter, he boards a floating wooden swan ride, one of the seaside resort's numerous offbeat attractions abandoned in winter.
Drifting into an intoxicating dream of a rock ’n’ roll future, Sam is nettled from his fantasy of fame and regained love by men's voices rising outside the swan, discussing Jersey arcana ... and murder.
To the backbeat of a brutal struggle to control a dying and increasingly surreal town, Sam pursues a vision at once heroic and carnal, self-destructive and soul affirming.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alex Austin is a Los Angeles-based novelist and playwright. Austin’s critically acclaimed novel The Perfume Factory, a coming-of-age story set on the Jersey Shore, was published in 2005/2006. The Red Album of Asbury Park is a sequel to “The Perfume Factory.” Portions of the book have been published in CalArts literary magazine Black Clock. Austin’s plays include The Amazing Brenda Strider, produced at Glaxa Theatre, Los Angeles. His latest play, Dupe, was produced at The Two Roads Theater, Studio City, California, in the summer of 2008. Austin lives with his wife Eileen in West Hills, California. Austin can be contacted at alaust70@aol.com
Critical Acclaim for Alex Austin’s previous novel The Perfume Factory
It's Catcher In The Rye as re-imagined by Bruce Springsteen.... I couldn't put this down.
—Jim Testa, Jersey Beat Magazine
Huck Finn might come to mind, and rightly so: Austin's authoring skills and ear for human rhythms of speech elevate The Perfume Factory to a lofty level of achievement indeed.
—Geoff Rotuno, The Boox Re-view
First-time novelist Austin draws a sharp, affecting portrait of wrong-side-of-the-tracks hopelessness, Jersey style. He captures perfectly the tone of teenage life, the aimlessness of finding something to do and the hesitant, meandering conversations of a budding romance. Through Sam's warring impulses, the author also probes the serious moral conundrums of youth, as he tries to break free of his self-absorption, engage with the world and solidify his character against the pressures of external circumstances.
—Kirkus Discoveries Recommended
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