What a treat. How to find yourself in 1970s New York, travelling the byways and highways, visiting key locales, and navigating life, love, and growing up in a family (and a country) on the brink of change. Ed Burns adds such personality to these characters, his real-life family, and makes you feel like a part of it all. As he describes his fading relationship with his brother, his mum's depression, his dad's stoicism (and obsession with the dictionary), it's hard not to fall into your own waves of nostalgia. I could listen to Ed tells his family's stories for hours. It's like a good conversation, a road map, a Billy Joel record, a Mets game, a Lin Manuel musical all rolled into one. A joy and a pleasure. I hear there's more to come and can't wait.

a really charming slice of life novel! this book very authentically details the life of a young irish catholic boy from long island. the audiobook, which is narrated by the author himself, very beautifully captures the nostalgia the characters experience. i particularly love how the story addressed the protagonist’s worries about growing up and how these changes will affect his relationship with his loved ones. overall, a really heartwarming read that i would definitely recommend.

Thank you RBMedia, Edwards Burns, & NetGalley for an ARC Audiobook of A Kid from Marlboro Road.

A familial story from the perspective of a 12 year old Irish-Catholic boy who lives in Long Island in the 1970s.

I will forever feel weird rating & giving reviews on personal stories such as this one just because it's an odd thing to review. That being said, I really did love this book quite a lot. I'm extremely happy I was able to listen to the audio version of this story because hearing Edward Burns thick Long Island accent just put you so much more into the story. The entire time I felt like I was walking beside him while he was recounting all the things that happened the summer the story takes place. I personally have never been to New York or Long Island, but the way he told this story I just felt like I was so encompassed with the whole community he was describing. I also loved how this was told in the perspective of a 12 year old even thought Edward Burns is 56 now. I was expecting that upon listening but it was a neat surprise that the decision was to hear how this summer takes place from the perspective of a 12 year old. Not a 56 year old reminiscing.

My takeaway from the whole book is to 100% listen to the audiobook because it just sells the story so completely.

A Kid from Marlboro Road is Edward Burns's first novel, and draws heavily on his Irish Catholic, Long Island upbringing. Set during the summer in which his protagonist turns 13, it's hard not to listen along as though Burns is narrating his own life. While the book is written with the briefly backwards-looking perspective of a still young boy, Burns's voice gives the impression of a much older man reminiscing nostalgically for a lost era (much as the character's mother reminisces about the Queens of her youth). This makes for an enjoyable listen, particularly for fans of Burns's husky New York accent, but it's not clear that this is the same impression given by reading the print book. Ultimately, it's a short, wistful slice of life of a Gen X childhood, which is clearly grounded in plenty of authenticity.

This was a funny and insightful look into the childhood of actor Edward Burns. I enjoy when books are read by the authors, especially when they are celebrities. This was a quick listen and really only involved his childhood, so if you're looking for something about how he became an actor, etc. this doesn't talk about that. Overall, I enjoyed it and had some good laughs.

Burns is a great storyteller and this audiobook is immersive. I liked that each chapter felt like a story or an actual memoir rather than a lesson to be learned.

I enjoyed the novel and related to it. I recorded a review for my YouTube channel and the link is attached. This book reminds me of Brighton Beach Memoirs, but far more relatable in that it was an Irish GenX kid.

I did not write a long review for this, but the YouTube video makes it clear. I recommend this book.

Set in the New York of the 1970s, this book follows the childhood of a young boy as he grows up. Follow the main character through famous landmarks and the trials of growing up.

Kid from Marlboro Road had its moments, but overall, it left me feeling a bit lukewarm. Burns has a knack for capturing the everyday struggles and triumphs of working-class life, and there were some scenes that really resonated with me. But the story felt a bit disjointed at times, jumping between different characters and subplots without a clear focus. I also found myself wanting more depth from the protagonist, Bobby. He had potential, but I never felt like I truly got to know him. It's a decent read if you're looking for a slice-of-life story, but it didn't quite leave a lasting impression on me.

This was just not very good. The narrative voice was decent, but the story was so subpar and the writing felt amateurish.

Audiobook was pretty decent.

Overall I enjoyed this read! It was a quick listen, and Edward Burns who wrote a great story was also the narrator who brought the kid from Marlboro road to life!

This book follows a young boy growing up in the 1970s on Long Island, NY. It follows him on his adventures about growing up in suburban Long Island. He includes stories from camping in Montauk and going fishing & clamming in the bay with his dad, to trips into Manhattan with his mom.

As a person from Long Island, I really enjoyed these stories. And they are similar to ones that I've heard my dad talk about, in fact I could imagine my dad being one of the boys neighborhood friends, as there were a lot of commonalities between Ed Burns and my dad's upbringing during this time.

I guess at times it just felt like it wasn't going anywhere, we just jumped into one story after another. But overall I did enjoy this audiobook

Thank you Netgalley and RB media for this ALC

Thank you for the audio book!

This audio book was so interesting, getting a view of the world in those days from a 12 year olds perspective. And the idea that he really doesn’t want to turn out like his older brothers mean to his family and uncaring teen self when he turns 13 but he thinks it’s inevitable because what teenager doesn’t hate there parents and act crazy. It was just a short , interesting read and I was happy I enjoyed it.

I’ll be publishing my review on Goodreads and StoryGraph 9th September and on Tik tok most likely will add to a monthly wrap up post with review the beginning of October.

This is a sweet, nostalgic collection of vignettes that I imagine must reflect the author’s own experiences. I enjoyed the narration as well. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for allowing me a copy of this audio book in return for an honest review.

This coming of age story follows twelve year old Kneenie through the ups and downs of his Irish American childhood in the late 1970’s. Peppered with the family tales passed down from his parents, Kneenie starts to realise his family may not be as solid as he once thought.

Edward Burns narrated his own novel, as he’s an actor he obviously knows how to bring the characters to life. I did occasionally forget we were supposed to be listening to a twelve year old tell the story in present tense and not an adult reminiscing, but for the most part it worked well.

What I liked: So confession time, I originally requested this book as I thought it was an autobiography by the Irish comedian Ed Byrne (I didn’t read the description beyond Irish and childhood), but as mistakes go, this was a good one. I immediately loved the first person, present tense narrative. Kneenie, is a sweet, perceptive boy trying to hide all signs of softness from his friends. His oft times naive observations cleverly allow the reader to see deeper into the family dynamics without losing the innocence of our narrator. All the characters were brilliantly developed and the stories that tied the plot together were all entertaining, some funny, others heart-rending.

What didn’t work for me: Occasionally I lost my sense of time, in fact I didn’t realise the beginning scene was a flash forward to later in the summer until the chapter where it happens. This may have been due to me missing an obvious clue, but it happened a bit throughout the book. I did find the ending abrupt but I see on Goodreads that this is the first of a trilogy so I’m assuming the book concluding how it did will work for the overall story.

Final thoughts: A beautifully told coming of age story filled with heart, humour and a slight sense of trepidation.

Who would enjoy this: It reminded me a bit of a cross between “The Wonder Years”, and “Angela’s Ashes” for some reason, so fans of nostalgic childhood stories. I would say it’s for adults even though the narrator is a kid.

Loved this book! It reads like a biography but it’s not. Ed Burns was a great narrator. I grew up in Queens and live in Long Island so I definitely related to many of the places and experiences he wrote about.
I’m looking forward to more books from him! Many thanks to the author and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I'd just finished posting my review of the print edition of A Kid From Marlboro Road when what should pop up on my NetGalley home page but the audio edition of the book, the newest of the new releases. 

Rarely do I reread a book in audio, let alone immediately after reading it in print. But my main reason for giving this book a five star review was because I loved the way Ed Burns captured the voice of his twelve year old protagonist in print, to the point where I could hear his actual voice narrating (knowing his work as an actor).

Since Burns naturally narrates his own audio book, I just had to listen to it. Thankfully I was quickly approved, and almost as quickly listened to it all. And it's just as good in audio, maybe better. 

Something struck me while listening that I missed previously, how much Burns's childhood was so much like my own. I'm a few years older, and my family Jewish holocaust survivors rather than Irish immigrants, I went to a Jewish yeshiva rather than catholic school, we were in suburban New Jersey rather than suburban Long Island, and my introduction to music was the Beatles rather than the Stones. 

But we freely roamed the kid-choked 51st Street of Weehawken (our version of Marlboro Road), played stoop ball with automatics, and salugi, and little league with weird team names of local sponsors. My mother introduced me to my first adult novels at the exact same age. We went to visit relatives in the Rockaways (I kid you not!).

We knew all the families on our block, hung out with their kids, went to school with them, spent summers together, even moved to the same new town when the time came to move on up. We made pilgrimages across the river to Manhattan to my parents' favorite haunts. We even went to visit relatives near the Grand Concourse in the Bronx (I kid you not!), went to the World's Fair in 1965, and Yankee Stadium whenever we could, sitting in general admission for a buck fifty. 

It's amazing really. A great reason for me to love this book even more than I did originally when the parallels hadn't occurred to me, when I was focused on voice and character and theme. Still a good book even if your own childhood was different -- even so I bet a lot of it will ring familiar.

Overall i really enjoyed this book. It just didn’t go anywhere?

The narration and writing was good. I found myself very emerged in the story and the atmosphere was built amazingly. I found the main character interesting - seeing him being worried about his parents and having to handle complicated topics as a child. It was good but something was just missing. I suppose it didn’t go too far since apparently there are more books coming out?

Whoever edited this audiobook should be fired. Every single breath and mouth sound was front and center. I sped it up but still couldn’t get through the entire thing. I usually rate memoirs highly, because it’s their story to tell, unless they’re horrible people. That’s not really the case for Ed Burns the person, but Ed Burns the narrator was done wrong by the production team.