Friday, February 01, 2008

"Trouble In Flatbush" A Coney Childhood Story

Author, Art Levy takes us into a 50's Coney Island tumultous adventure through the eyes of a 12 year old boy in "Trouble In Flatbush", published by BookSurge.

To best describe the book, here is an excerpt from an email sent to Kinetic Carnival:

A New Book Presents an Animated Vision Of 1950 Brooklyn Through the Eyes of a 12 Year OldArt Levy, who was born and brought up in Brooklyn, has recently had a book published that many should find fun to read. His book, Trouble in Flatbush, is a book for all those who enjoy revisiting their memories of childhood urban life and for those who want to see an image of a different time. The reader is given a picture of 1948-50 Brooklyn and particularly Coney Island in stunning detail through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy. This account is a meticulous and animated biography of place.

Mid century Coney Island is long gone. The glamorous amusements parks have vanished. Luna Park with its Moorish towers burned down. Steeplechase with its iron horses became worn down and was subsequently torn down. But the images and adventures that took place there were burned into the memory of the author.

As the book begins, the boy senses change in his family and seeks to discover the cause. Later, during a seedy show in the Midway of Coney Island he discovers the root of the trouble and at the same time graduates from the naive days of childhood.

The voice of the 12 year old is funny and sweet. The adventures are tumultuous and the boy’s schemes invariably lead to intrigue and trouble. This book is for everyone, but anyone who lives in, or has ever lived in a big city, the book will have a special attachment.

Trouble in Flatbush, Adventures of a 12 year old in Mid 20th Century Brooklyn, can be found on Amazon.com.

The author was born, brought up and bar mitzvahed in Brooklyn. Living in a traditional Italian-Jewish neighborhood he perfected the values of guilt and blame. His writing skills were sharpened in Public School 226 by forging excuse notes from his father. When he traveled to upper Manhattan to attend the High School of Music and Art, he discovered that he was ethnic. After graduating from NYU and Dartmouth he received his PhD from the University of Virginia. It was there that he perfected the southern-Jewish-Italian accent. Although he tried to conceal his Brooklyn ethnic origins in the south, he was always revealed by the occasional “oy vey y’all” with an accompanying hand gesture.


Visit the author's site for more information at: www.ArthurJLevy.com

You can also watch a reading of an excerpt of the book by the author on YouTube here.


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