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The King of Kreskin Avenue
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The King of Kreskin Avenue is the powerful tale of the connection between Mario Colucci, a highly decorated, emotionally scarred Korean War hero who’s the neighborhood oddity, and a sixteen-year-old neighborhood kid, Robbie Shumstein, trying to come to grips with the death of his brother in Vietnam.
Set in Buffalo, NY over a 30-year time frame, the story’s dramatic climax ...more
Set in Buffalo, NY over a 30-year time frame, the story’s dramatic climax ...more
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I loved editing this gem of a novel. Alan Vitberg beautifully conveys 1960s Buffalo (and other eras like the Depression and locales like a military hospital in the Pacific) to tell a tale that moves as our lives do--across decades. Sometimes what seems futile and meaningless turns out to have just the spark of life and purpose that can rescue lives and inspire us all. "The King" is a quirky, dull slob who sits in a lawn chair in his driveway, in a battered pork pie hat, and invites the ridicule
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I really enjoyed reading The King of Kreskin Avenue! It was a really interesting story and a take on a time in the country where the fate of hundreds of men were in the hands of the government when the draft was alive and well during the Vietnam War. The setting in Buffalo, NY was one of the coolest parts for me, especially being someone who was raised in Upstate NY. The author paints a really vivid picture of what the scene was like in the late 1960s and the characters added even more detail to
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The first chapter and I thought, what did Robbie have to do with the King of Kreskin? What were the Kreskin Avenue residents so wrong about? In a unique plot twist, two very different generations were partnered for life and slowly throughout the years we see their relationship grow, see little bits of empathy being applied until suddenly, that empathy is needed in large, unending amounts until Mario becomes the King himself. The author's story reads smoothly, as though the family storyteller is
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You know you're getting old when you have lived in the time period of the historical fiction you are reading! I typically enjoy historical fiction because I am able to learn how people lived and thought in the time of the novel. This is a great book for younger people who probably don't know much about the Vietnam era or the horrors of that war. The character development was excellent and each chapter was compelling. There are many great stories interwoven together which really brought the
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The King of Kreskin Avenue took me back to 1968, the year I graduated from high school. I grew up in a similar neighbor in Western New York. The only difference was it was Irish and Italian. My older brother was in Vietnam and my friends were being drafted. Some wanted to go because it was “the right” thing to do. God and country! Others not so much.
The book has many twists and turns from Korea to Vietnam and beyond. From love and pride of country to total despair. I enjoyed the unsuspected love ...more
The book has many twists and turns from Korea to Vietnam and beyond. From love and pride of country to total despair. I enjoyed the unsuspected love ...more
This is one of the books that you will not want to pause at the end of a chapter. A great take on an important era with intriguing characters and a compelling storyline. Whether you lived through the Vietnam era or not (I did not), you should add this to your read list.
Excellent book!!!
An incredible book, I could not put it down.
Vitberg has truly captured a gripping theme in this book, against a powerful backdrop. It’s recommended reading for all generations, not just those who may find it hits home because these images and feelings he creates were ‘real’ in the wartime then. To me, it’s about compassion and the human spirit as much as anything else.
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A.K. Vitberg was born and raised in Buffalo, NY and now resides with his wife Janice, near his three adult children, on a two-acre wooded lot in New York State’s Finger Lakes Region. After an award-winning career in marketing and advertising he wrote his debut novel, The King of Kreskin Avenue, reflecting on his coming of age in the turmoil of the 1960’s and its similarities to the turmoil of
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