World on a String Karen Stark 9781475134414 Books
Download As PDF : World on a String Karen Stark 9781475134414 Books
“Who’d want to hurt an artist?” Typically, no one..........unless it’s Bugsy Siegel, Joe Masseria and any number of bloodthirsty gangsters who’ve hired Charlie Stark to decorate their speakeasies. Diving under tables and dodging bullets was trouble enough. But in the heat of the American Great Depression, Charlie, a son of Jewish immigrants, a self-taught artist and theater set designer, needs the money. So does his family. Eleven Starks endure a crowded two-room flat, a tenement slum, one of many that riddle the squalid, Lower East Side of New York City in the 1920’s. In this arena, Charlie can only rely on his wits and humor to overcome poverty, danger and despair. His father, a penniless pushcart vendor, can’t help him. His mother is overwhelmed with nine children, one of them dying from a grisly congenital disease, and the love of his life, Opal, an African-American aspiring school teacher, has her own issues. It’s all she can do to make a living, and shield Charlie and herself from a racist world. Based on Charlie’s real life memoir, Karen Stark’s fictional World On A String allows us to explore her father’s s rollicking escapades, his talents and flaws, his perils and pleasures, his hopes and unrequited dreams. Sweet and bittersweet, World On A String is a lusciously rich, entertaining and enlightening study of America’s most challenging era from the perspective of one of America’s most resourceful young men a twenty-two year old slum kid, a Jewish Huck Finn named Charlie Stark.
World on a String Karen Stark 9781475134414 Books
What a delightful, engaging, and touching story of "the good ole days" though the eyes of Charlie. I grew up in a similar, multi-ethnic, northeastern neighborhood......full of the same tragedy, pathos, poverty so well described in Karen Stark's novel. What was so terrific about this book is that the author was able to convey the love and hope that transcended all the negatives.......The music teacher who dreamed something more for her talented student, the mother who nursed the never-to-survive sickly child, the thrill of neighborhood pranks, trips to the park, or just hanging with friends, the illicit but innocent love of the forbidden Opal, and the fondly remembered taste of Mal-o-mars and egg cremes at the soda fountain. Charlie's final departure and his mama's heartbreaking response were tenderly conveyed, and yet the reader's tearful heart is left with and lightened by the expectation of better things to come. That simultaneous sense of mourning, coupled with a never-ending hope for the future, is something we all so vividly remember. Thanks to the author for bringing the memories of Charlie alive.....and for reminding us all why those days were anything but "poor." (Can we look forward to a sequel of Charlie's adventures???)Product details
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Tags : World on a String [Karen Stark] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. “Who’d want to hurt an artist?” Typically, no one..........unless it’s Bugsy Siegel, Joe Masseria and any number of bloodthirsty gangsters who’ve hired Charlie Stark to decorate their speakeasies. Diving under tables and dodging bullets was trouble enough. But in the heat of the American Great Depression,Karen Stark,World on a String,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,147513441X,Alternative History,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction Alternative History,Science fiction
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World on a String Karen Stark 9781475134414 Books Reviews
From arriving as immigrants living on the lower East Side in a 2 room apartment with no tub or shower, mother and father and 9 children manage to survive. One son, Charlie Stark, with no formal art training becomes a theater set designer on Broadway. This story is based on his real life memoir and what a story it is. He had an amazing life and the story is riveting.
Woody James
I really enjoyed reading this book and getting to know Charlie and the other characters. It reminded me a lot of Angela's Ashes, it gave me an appreciation of how hard our parents struggled just to survive childhood.I definetely wanted the story to go on to see what happened to Charlie after he left New York.I strongly reccommend The World on a String to anyone who enjoys a book with real characters that you connect with.
Being a member of the "boomer" generation, I have always been struck with how the depression era seems to have impacted everyone in my parents' generation, and shaped their later lives in significant ways. Every family has unique stories of this special time in American history. Karen does an excellent job of telling the Charlie Stark story in a compelling way that makes you feel like you are right there with him. You won't want to put it down!
From the very first sentence, this book carries the reader off into a world never before imagined. What makes it even more amazing is that it is a very real world - one that is far from most of our realities and yet it becomes very real. And when it came to an end, I found myself wanting more. I honestly bought it to support a dear friend, but it quickly became a book I have recommended to many people. It would make a great movie!
What a thoughtful and exciting tribute to the life of Charlie Stark. Author and daughter of Charlie, Karen Stark was able to bring to life the struggles of an immigrant family, and particularly, the life of son Charlie, who managed to use his natural talents to escape a life of poverty. Ms. Stark's descriptive writing helps the reader picture Charlie and his experiences in an environment mixed with musicians, artists, mobsters, and a caring mentor and makes for an interesting read. Well done by this first time author.
I had the privilege of meeting Charlie Stark-- a charming, delightful man who lit up the room just by walking in. He had a magnetic presence, even in his older years. I loved to hear about his adventures and accomplishments, yet I admit that I thought to myself at the time that he might have been prone to embellishment. Were these references to gangsters a product of his imagination? After reading and re-reading this book, I realize he had lived the kind of life that I could never have imagined. How did he survive to become a successful designer, loving father and husband that I knew him to be? Turbulent, frightening, inspiring, compelling--this account of Charlie's life in the tumult of the lower east side of NY is hard to put down. The characters will linger in your thoughts long after you read the words of the last chapter.
A masterful rendering of life on the Lower East Side and the burgeoning energy, grandeur, and squalor of New York City in the 1920's and early 30's. At the center is Charlie Stark, a child of the ghetto, who lives by his talents and his wits. The book combines the words of Charlie Stark--from his memoir--with fictional portraits of five other characters written by his daughter, Karen Stark. Following the vibrant narrative told in Charlie's keenly observant,sometimes outrageous voice, Karen Stark creates a world of entertainers, entrepreneurs, gangsters, and artists, and she draws lovingly detailed, unsparing portraits of Charlie's family, friends, teachers, and enemies. Charlie's mother, Clara, is a particularly moving character. Ms. Stark's narrative of her widowed grandmother's life in a tiny tenement apartment--where she cares for her many children, all the while tending to her dying son Louie--takes us deep into the mind and physical space of a woman whose struggle in America has been relentless. Ms. Stark depicts in subtle, moving details how Clara is forced to say goodbye to both the living and the dead, how she contemplates the curse of her human consciousness, that must look flat on at her losses and keep living.
A stunning portrait of the times and a tribute to a talented, courageous man.
What a delightful, engaging, and touching story of "the good ole days" though the eyes of Charlie. I grew up in a similar, multi-ethnic, northeastern neighborhood......full of the same tragedy, pathos, poverty so well described in Karen Stark's novel. What was so terrific about this book is that the author was able to convey the love and hope that transcended all the negatives.......The music teacher who dreamed something more for her talented student, the mother who nursed the never-to-survive sickly child, the thrill of neighborhood pranks, trips to the park, or just hanging with friends, the illicit but innocent love of the forbidden Opal, and the fondly remembered taste of Mal-o-mars and egg cremes at the soda fountain. Charlie's final departure and his mama's heartbreaking response were tenderly conveyed, and yet the reader's tearful heart is left with and lightened by the expectation of better things to come. That simultaneous sense of mourning, coupled with a never-ending hope for the future, is something we all so vividly remember. Thanks to the author for bringing the memories of Charlie alive.....and for reminding us all why those days were anything but "poor." (Can we look forward to a sequel of Charlie's adventures???)
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