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.