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Palisades Park

By: Alan Brennert
Narrated by: Mark McCarthy
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Summary

Best seller Alan Brennert's spellbinding story about a family of dreamers and their lives within the legendary Palisades Amusement Park. Growing up in the 1930s, there is no more magical place than Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey - especially for seven-year-old Antoinette, who horrifies her mother by insisting on the unladylike nickname Toni, and her brother, Jack. Toni helps her parents, Eddie and Adele Stopka, at the stand where they sell homemade French fries amid the roar of the Cyclone roller coaster. There is also the lure of the world’s biggest salt-water pool, complete with divers whose astonishing stunts inspire Toni, despite her mother's insistence that girls can't be high divers. But a family of dreamers doesn't always share the same dreams, and then the world intrudes: There's the Great Depression, and Pearl Harbor, which hits home in ways that will split the family apart; and perils like fire and race riots in the park. Both Eddie and Jack face the dangers of war, while Adele has ambitions of her own - and Toni is determined to take on a very different kind of danger in impossible feats as a high diver. Yet they are all drawn back to each other - and to Palisades Park - until the park closes forever in 1971.

Evocative and moving, with the trademark brilliance at transforming historical events into irresistible fiction that made Alan Brennert’s Moloka'i and Honolulu into listener favorites, Palisades Park takes us back to a time when life seemed simpler - except, of course, it wasn't.

©2013 Alan Brennert (P)2013 Recorded Books

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  • Corinne
  • 17-07-13

Fabulous!!!!!

Any additional comments?

I usually don't write reviews, but had to for Palisades Park. I feel Alan Brennert is a wonderful writer and he writes meaningful fiction with non fiction mixed in. I learn so much from each book. It was the same with Palisades Park. I could see the Park when traveling in a car by the Hudson River and know I went there at least once. After listening to this book, I was sorry that I couldn't go there right now one more time. He makes the story and characters so real that I could connect with each one. Besides the writing, the narration was wonderful and fit the book perfectly. I loved listening to it, and am sorry it is over.

7 people found this helpful

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  • Daryl
  • 27-11-13

Brennert does characters best

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. This book was an incredible addition to the genre of historical fiction set against the backdrop of an amusement park. I will definitely think twice about amusement park workers - even though the days of self-made men and women and amusement parks are over. Brennert does a wonderful job of describing his characters, and while I couldn't agree with all action of characters, I could understand why they did what they did, which sometimes if half the battle.

Any additional comments?

The narrator was quite good for this book, though in parts read a little too slowly for my liking. His dialogue was very good. The book itself was well-written and imaginative.... I always look forward to Mr. brennert's books and was thrilled when this one came out. If you have never read a Brennert book, you will not receive a fast-action plot, but a character-driven growth and buildup with true historical figures sprinkled in realistically. Bravo!

4 people found this helpful

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  • Pamela
  • 09-08-13

Not a 5.0 for me

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I am not disappointed in reading this story, just disappointed that I was expecting something exceptional. I probably won't recommend this story.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The ending was okay, a simple ending to a simple book

Do you think Palisades Park needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. What else can you say now that the core of the story is no longer. Their lives are not interesting enough to want to know more. They are mostly regular, could be my neighbor types.

Any additional comments?

It was most disappointing to have little character development.

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 19-07-20

Narration disappointing

An illuminating story about the history of Palisades Park in New Jersey, but the narrator's voice grated, especially when voicing the character Toni. I never thought of not finishing listening to the whole book but, by the same token, I was always aware of the narrator.

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  • Elizabeth
  • 09-06-19

Not Bad, narration is annoying!

This is not a bad book. I just had been told how great Alan Brennert's books were and I guess I was expecting more. However the narration is just annoying, At points you can actually hear him sipping water. He takes really deep breathes in between sentences. His girl voices are just ridiculous. Even the men voices are over exaggerated. The story is about a bunch of carnies and is only semi interesting. I kept listening with the hopes that something interesting might happen but so far that has not happened and I'm 2 chapters from the end.

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  • Anna E.
  • 12-07-18

nice listen, not as gripping as his other novels

nice listen, not as gripping as his
other novels (fifteen word equivalent, protect a women's right to choose)