Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2012
272 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
As a little girl growing up in Boston, Miriam Bluestein fantasized about a life lived on stage, specifically in a musical. Get married, have a family - sure, maybe she'd do those things, too, but first and foremost there was her career. As a woman, she is both tormented and consoled by those dreams in her day-to-day existence with her family, including a short-tempered husband, a cranky mother, and three demanding children, one of whom, Ethan, shows real talent for the stage.
It is through Ethan that Miriam strives to realize her dreams. As she pushes him to make the most of his talent, the rest of her life gradually comes undone, with her husband becoming increasingly frustrated and her other two children - Sam, a mass of quirks and idiosyncrasies, and Julie, hostile and bitter - withdrawing into their own worlds. Still Miriam dreams, praying for that big finale, which, when it comes, is nothing that she ever could have imagined.
Broadway Baby marks the fiction debut of a nationally acclaimed award-winning memoirist and poet.
Paperback original
"Equally sad and laugh-out-loud funny and boasting a cast of vibrant characters, this book is sure to hit a nerve with readers, no matter what their background... Sure to be a favorite." - Library Journal
"Despite Shapiro's excellent prose, well-developed setting, and well-rendered cultural tension, the lack of character arc will quickly wear thin." - Publishers Weekly
"If his book elicits sorrow it's due to Shapiro's smashing ability to portray Bluestein as a romantic... Broadway Baby is an ordinary story told extraordinarily well. Bluestein is as flawed as any human but is heroic all the same." - Louisville Courier-Journal
"When great poets like Shapiro write their novels, they bring their powers of wordsmithery to the page... They do more than simply describe the action, so that the pleasure of reading a good story is enhanced." - Durham Herald-Sun
"How do you put into words thunderous applause, curtain calls and a standing ovation? That's what I send out to Alan Shapiro's remarkable debut novel, Broadway Baby, a beautifully written, often hilarious, memorably moving account of the one and only Miriam Bluestein's greatest performance: her life." - Jill McCorkle, author of Going Away Shoes
This information about Broadway Baby was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Alan Shapiro is the author of ten volumes of poetry and two memoirs, one of which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has received a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Lila Wallace–Reader's Digest Writer's Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, among other honors. He currently teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Visit him online at www.alanshapiro.org.
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