The smell of waffles, fries and cotton candy! The taste of
the salt from the swimming pool and wind in your hair! Day or night, Palisades
Park is lit up and just the place to be every summer.
For the Stopka family, the park is their home from opening
day until the last days of summer. Eddie and Adele each love the park for their
own reasons, and fall in love while working concession booths
across the Midway from one another. Marrying on the park’s carrousel, it is no
surprise that their children Antoinette “Toni” and Jack grow up enjoying the
park just as much.
The story revolves around Palisades Park during the
Depression, World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Historical plights
like racism are touched on, as well as mobsters that buy out the police and other
officials.
The heart of the story is the Stopkas and their dreams that
are lit by the lights of Palisades Park. For Eddie it is having a family of his
own while providing for them and Adele yearns for the spotlight just like when
she was a childhood actress. Toni spends her time at the Palisades Pool and
hopes to witness a dive one day from the top, not just as a spectator. Pen in
hand, her younger brother Jack draws the superheroes that once comforted him
during WWII radio shows.
The carneys and travelling acts the family meets every
summer add to the variety of characters at Palisades Park, and some even become
an extended family. These colorful acts sometimes support the Stopkas, but also add to the trials and difficulties the family goes through to reach their own dreams.
The novel is a great piece of historical fiction. Palisades
Park was a real place that East Coasters spent their summers at up until the
1970s, and I don’t doubt that a family like the Stopkas were a part of the
park’s history. If you need a little something to gear you up for summer fun in
the sun, this one is it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by and chatting!