Ellington Boulevard: Book summary and reviews of Ellington Boulevard by Adam Langer

Ellington Boulevard Summary

Clarinetist Ike Morphy, his dog Herbie Mann, and a pair of pigeons who roost on his air conditioner are about to be evicted from their apartment on West 106th Street, also known as Duke Ellington Boulevard. Ike has never had a lease, just a handshake agreement with the recently deceased landlord; and now that landlord’s son stands to make a killing on apartment 2B.

Centering on the fate of one apartment before, during, and after the height of New York’s real estate boom, Ellington Boulevard’s characters include the Tenant and His Dog; the Landlord, a recovered alcoholic and womanizer who has newly found Judaism and a wife half his age; the Broker, an out-of-work actor whose new profession finally allows him to afford theater tickets he has no time to use; the Broker’s New Boyfriend, a second-rate actor who composes a musical about the sale of 2B (“Is there no one I can lien on if this boom goes bust?”). There’s also the Buyer, a trusting young editor at a dying cultural magazine, who falls in love with the Tenant; the Buyer’s Husband, a disaffected graduate student taken to writing bawdy faux-academic papers; and the Buyer’s Husband’s Girlfriend, a children’s book writer with a tragic past.

Ellington Boulevard Reviews

"Starred Review. A New York City novel par excellence." - Kirkus Reviews.

"I loved this book, but then I've always been a sucker for quality. Adam Langer lifts the lid off the top of New York City and lets us see, close up, and terribly personally, the cosmopolitan complexity of the city that never sleeps alone. In his fugue-like charting of their lives—lives that cross, lives that double-cross—he reveals his love of all things New York: its people, its dogs, and, even more remarkably, its pigeons. The composition and orchestration that Mr. Langer has gifted us with would have delighted the Duke himself." - Larry Gelbart, creator of M*A*S*H, co-screenwriter of Tootsie, and author of City of Angels and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

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Adam Langer Author Biography

Adam Langer was born and raised Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood. He left Chicago in 1984 to attend Vassar College, but returned in 1988 and worked for a little over a decade as an editor, nonfiction author, playwright, theater director, and very occasional film producer. He wrote for a number of periodicals, most notably the Chicago Reader.

In 2000, Langer won a fellowship to Columbia University’s National Arts Journalism Program which brought him to New York City. He served as senior editor of Book Magazine until that publication folded in 2003. He is the author of four novels and one memoir. He lives in New York City with his wife, Beate Sissenich, and daughter, Nora.

From the author's website

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