As a New Jersey native, there are two things I take pride in: First is the Jersey Shore and second is Bruce Springsteen. Unfortunately, he’ll have no relevance in this review.
However, not enough can be said about the Shore, where we waste money on rigged crane games, where generations of high schoolers have gone for post-prom escapades, where we drag boogie boards and sandy towels back to our cars – and where Alan Brennert chose to set his novel Palisades Park.
Brennert’s story follows the Stopkas, a Polish family that lives near Palisades Park, a once real but now sadly defunct amusement park. In its heyday, the park’s advertisements dominated East Coast travel brochures and radio stations. Many made use of the Freddy Cannon song, aptly enough entitled…well, “Palisades Park." In the song, he sings, “I took a ride on a shoot-the-chute. That girl I sat beside was awful cute, and after while she was holdin' hands with me.”
Alan Brennert’s novel is burning with nostalgia, but it's more of a nostalgia for baby boomers, who experienced the park first-hand. However, as the story goes on, Palisades Park becomes more of an idea than an actual place. You don’t have to have visited the pool or the corndog stand to understand what they stand for. If there’s any place that holds significance to you and your family – whether it be an amusement park, an old neighborhood, or even a restaurant around the block – you’ll be able to connect with the haven this park creates for the Stopkas.
The novel is historical, chronicling many real-life events ( a major part of the book is the Civil Rights Movement, with one scene taking place during a protest after African-Americans were denied entry into the park’s swimming pool). However, Brennert’s goal here isn’t to summarize history and Palisades Park isn’t only about America’s timeline. Palisades Park is also about the emotional weight of time itself, and the effect it has on family relationships. It's about how grief can leave us silent, sometimes to the point that it cripples us.
Brennert’s characters are richly drawn. Prominence falls to the family’s daughter Toni, who aspires to be a high diver. Other characters include Toni’s father Eddie, who leaves the family to serve in World War Two, her brother Jack, who journeys to Vietnam, and her spotlight-hungry mother Adele, left to tend to the home front while Eddie is stationed in Hawaii.
Adele, by far, is the most polarizing character in Palisades Park. The choices she makes while her husband is overseas are life-altering for everyone involved, especially her children who are forced to pick up the pieces when she’s done. Brennert rarely tells the story from Adele’s perspective, and though this may have been intentional – showing the emotional divide between the children and their mother – it also seems like a missed opportunity.
Palisades Park is a difficult book to criticize. In all respects, Brennert went above and beyond with what he set out to do, and any criticism is only nitpicking. Because the story has such an expansive cast, some characters are underdeveloped. An example is Toni’s love interest. Though secondary to her quest to become a high diver, Toni’s experiences with men are still a decently-sized story thread. Then, when she does choose a man, he comes out of nowhere. They have one conversation. Shortly afterward, they’re married.
In some sense, it’s forgivable. Spending time chronicling every detail of the Stopkas’ lives would have warranted five more books, but that doesn't help the disappointment that comes with seeing a character you were so invested in end up with someone that has no personality.
About halfway through the novel, Toni hijacks the narration. While originally told in an omniscient third-person, floating between different Stopkas, Brennert puts the focus on her as she gets older. The shift never felt unnatural, but it did make certain character arcs (like her father and her brother) seem forced and incomplete.
But overall, Palisades Park is a masterful novel, following the Stopkas as they struggle to reclaim the foundation the family was built upon. In fact, their struggle to rebuild is much like the park's, which catches on fire not once, but twice! If the place was still around, it would see that Alan Brennert has done it proud.
