North End Boy: Innocence and Experience Amid the Seven Wonders of Elizabeth, New Jersey

It’s the summer of 1978, a time of great turbulence in America and in the lives of seven young men growing up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. For the first 20 years of their lives, they lived through rising crime, race riots, inflation, high unemployment, political corruption, gas lines and an unfinished cold war. Now, the closure of local manufacturing sites, such as Singers Sewing Machine Works, Burry Biscuits and the Bayway Refinery threatens the very existence of their families. The construction of new roads, like the Bayway Exchange, cuts through their old neighborhoods, burying them beneath yards of concrete. Crooked politicians and mobsters fight over a shrinking pie.
It was a worrisome time to come of age.
Then, over the dramatic course of just 36 hours, the young friends are pushed from advanced adolescence into the jarring realities of adulthood. The tragic loss of one of their own shatters their lives and changes their dreams. Decisions about families, careers and, ultimately, their destiny, are made overnight. One embraces the family business. One moves out to California. One finds redemption in the Catholic Church. Another one doesn’t. The bond that held them all together dissolves.
Loosely autobiographical, North End Boy is a meditation on urban America, as seen through the eyes of a young man with immigrant sensibilities and working-class roots. Local history buffs, as well as those with ties to Elizabeth and Newark, will be drawn to the landmarks and historical references featured throughout the book, particularly the city’s seven wonders – Singers Sewing Machine Works, Burry Biscuits, Bayway Refinery, Goethals Bridge, the Courthouse, New Jersey Turnpike and Newark Airport – and the roles they played in the Elizabeth’s rich history.
All book sale proceeds will be donated to St. Benedict's Prep School in Newark, which is featured in the North End Boy.
Visit this site to learn more about North End Boy and the author, Kevin Brady:
https://.northendboy.com