Paradise Atop the Hudson

I have been really looking forward to the release of Paradise Atop the Hudson. The book captures a time and place - Fairview NJ in the sixties beautifully. I grew up just a few blocks from the main character and am two years older and could relate to many of the places and real people who are mentioned in the book. As a matter of fact the appendix alone is worth the price of admission. The suspenseful plot is compelling. The one weakness is the dialogue. It is reasonable that the main character a sensitive compassionate boy persecuted by bullies speaks like someone out of the Hardy Boys, but not the rest of the characters. Nobody in the book "sounds" like they grew up within a couple of hundred miles of the metro New York area. But the insight into community dynamics more than makes up for it. There is a great appreciation for the people who made the town such a great place to grow up in. The one thing that the novel brings out is the divide between the two Catholic parishes St. John's the original parish staffed by diocesan priests and Our Lady of Grace staffed by priests of Pallotine order and generally referred to as the Italian church. The divide shows up in the main characters family as he has an Italian father and an Irish mother.

"Paradise Atop the Hudson" is a deeply moving work of fictional art that examines bullying, peer pressure, familial love, racism, homophobia, compassion and forgiveness.It is so beautifully-written, and a cover-to-cover page turner. Though the captivating story which is superbly edited, is front and center, the novel poignantly explores a time and a place in two amazing towns in the 60s and 70s. The author brilliantly investigates the entrepreneurial prowess of working class Italians, Greeks, Germans and Irish in this ethnic melting pot.The book's dialogue is authentic, richly cadenced and a mirror of how people spoke during that times.Chapters 39 (the confessional) and the final chapter are both overwhelming, though there isn't a boring sentence in the book.Can't wait for the sequel!

An outstanding book full of life and while it’s a fictional account of life as Sam knew it, it has a lot of real life adventures. As I read it I feel like I’m back in Fairview. This is an excellent account of what it was like to grow up in that area. I’m not much of a reader I haven’t finished more than one or two books in my entire life but I’m taking this one slow so I can savor every moment. To one of my best friends Sam you did good buddy

Enjoying this book, reminding me of my childhood. This book has great details of the area I grow up and great detail on the cultures that built it .

I loved this book, I am not from New Jersey, but I married a Jersey Boy in 1980 and moved to the area, it brought back so many wonderful memories of the places and people that were a part of my life for so many years. The story about small town life will bring a tear to your eye, no matter where you are from. A+++++ for Paradise atop The Hudson.

I always lamented being born too late to attend Palisades Amusement Park, but in reading Paradise Atop of the Hudson, I was immediately transported to that storied land. In the subsequent pages, the author showcases with tenderness and accuracy the emotional and behavioral extremes of the coming of age experience - with a devout faith in the potential for redemption and goodness of the human condition. A deft and promising debut!

Sammy Juliano the author of "Paradise Atop the Hudson", possesses an incredible talent and style of writing that truly encompassed our youth. The story is uniquely detailed and focusses on friendship, love, drama, humor. This book offers readers some really serious entertainment, especially for me, a former resident of the towns that Sammy writes about. Paradise atop the Hudson is exactly that, a literary paradise. Enjoy!

You don’t have to be from Fairview, N.J. to enjoy this nostalgic tale of time and place. It’s like a snapshot of growing up in the 1960s and Juliano captures the period in both description and dialogue. Though I lived across the river in New York, the characters are familiar They are three-dimensional and believable. You feel like you know them. A fantastic and engrossing read.