About the Book
From a New York Times-bestselling author, a "smart, funny" novel about a New Jersey man obsessed with the legendary singer (The Washington Post).
"Kashner's hilarious debut novel reviews the life of a down-on-his-luck Hoboken, N.J., window-shade salesman through a series of heart-wrenching letters he writes to his idol, Frank Sinatra. Like the Chairman of the Board, 'Finkie' Finklestein grows up in a poor ethnic Hoboken neighborhood and prospers during the postwar American boom. He buys a house in Fort Lee once owned by Buddy Hackett and names his daughter Nancy Ava, after Frank's first two wives. Finkie mimics the swinging sophistication of the Rat Pack, who, he vainly hopes, will one day draft him into active service . . . With rapid-fire wit, Kashner demonstrates his detailed knowledge of pop culture as Finkie follows Sinatra's movies and marriages, his story climaxing at the 1971 farewell concert . . . Kashner manages to dissect a fan's obsession with poignant comedy, and he captures a New Jersey accent with a sure ear . . . a sparkling literary talent." --Publishers Weekly
Named a Best Book of the Year by both the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, Sinatraland is an "uncommonly original and engaging" character study as well as a thought-provoking look at celebrity culture (The Washington Post).
"Smart, humorous, original . . . deftly explores the peculiarly tragic aspects of an obsession with a celebrity." --Helen Schulman, New York Times-bestselling author of This Beautiful Life
"Quirky . . . intelligent . . . very funny." --The Boston Globe
About the Author :
Sam Kashner teaches writing at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. An acclaimed biographer and poet, he is author of A Talent for Genius: The Life and Times of Oscar Levant, Hollywood Kryptonite and several books of poetry, and has written for numerous publications including GQ and Vanity Fair. He lives in Williamsburg with his wife, the writer Nancy Schoenberger. Sinatraland is his first novel.
Review :
Helen Schulman author of "The Revisionist" Smart, humorous, original, Sam Kashner's "Sinatraland" deftly explores the peculiarly tragic aspects of an obsession with a celebrity -- "the" celebrity, Sinatra -- in a moving, romantic, epistolary, tour de force.
James Ellory Ring-a-ding! "Sinatraland" is the postmortem on Frank Sinatra. Sam Kashner pokes, probes, dissects, and undermines the myth and takes us on a deep dunk into the sewer of American pop culture. This is an indictment of the Voice and a gorgeously wrought hymn to the finger-popping twentieth-century loser.
Jonathan Yardley "The Washington Post" Uncommonly original and engaging...a smart, funny, knowing novel about what it's like to be a certain kind of American man.
Madison Smartt Bell Sam Kashner's first novel is weirder than it sounds, but with wit and charm to match its strangeness. By turns hilarious, perverse, surreal, and genuinely touching, "Sinatraland" is what one might call an incomparable debut.
Mark Rozzo "Los Angeles Times" If you were still with us, Frank, you'd sleep the sleep of kings knowing that the art of book writing is safe in [Sam Kashner's] hands.
Robert Plunket author of "My Search for Warren Harding" and "Love Junkie" Regardless of how you feel about Frank Sinatra you will gleefully devour "Sinatraland." It's the Old Blue Eyes legend writ small, transferred to the oddly romantic life of "Finkie" Finkelstein. Harrowing, sad, and very funny, it charts the darker and more complex corners of the twentieth-century male psyche.
Robert Taylor "The Boston Globe" Quirky...intelligent...very funny.
Helen Schulmanauthor of "The Revisionist"
Smart, humorous, original, Sam Kashner's "Sinatraland" deftly explores the peculiarly tragic aspects of an obsession with a celebrity -- "the" celebrity, Sinatra -- in a moving, romantic, epistolary, tour de force.
Jonathan Yardley"The Washington Post"
Uncommonly original and engaging...a smart, funny, knowing novel about what it's like to be a certain kind of American man.
Madison Smartt BellSam Kashner's first novel is weirder than it sounds, but with wit and charm to match its strangeness. By turns hilarious, perverse, surreal, and genuinely touching, "Sinatraland" is what one might call an incomparable debut.
Mark Rozzo"Los Angeles Times"
If you were still with us, Frank, you'd sleep the sleep of kings knowing that the art of book writing is safe in [Sam Kashner's] hands.
Robert Plunketauthor of "My Search for Warren Harding" and "Love Junkie"
Regardless of how you feel about Frank Sinatra you will gleefully devour "Sinatraland." It's the Old Blue Eyes legend writ small, transferred to the oddly romantic life of "Finkie" Finkelstein. Harrowing, sad, and very funny, it charts the darker and more complex corners of the twentieth-century male psyche.
Robert Taylor"The Boston Globe"
Quirky...intelligent...very funny.
James ElloryRing-a-ding! "Sinatraland" is the postmortem on Frank Sinatra. Sam Kashner pokes, probes, dissects, and undermines the myth and takes us on a deep dunk into the sewer of American pop culture. This is an indictment of the Voice and a gorgeously wrought hymn to the finger-popping twentieth-century loser.
