cover image The Jersey Shore Uncovered: A Revealing Season on the Beach

The Jersey Shore Uncovered: A Revealing Season on the Beach

Peter Genovese. Rutgers University Press, $29.95 (225pp) ISBN 978-0-8135-3315-5

Proud New Jerseyan Genovese is no stranger to writing books on his home state, and in building his oeuvre, the Newark Star-Ledger writer turns to summer fun with this follow-up to his previous books, Roadside New Jersey and Jersey Diners. With nearly 330 color and b&w photos of the quirky Jersey shore accompanying his narrative, Genovese highlights the unusual and kitschy. In a state with battling seafood festivals--there's the New Jersey Seafood Festival in Belmar, and the New Jersey Fresh Seafood Festival in Atlantic City--there's no shortage of culinary entertainment. Wildwood boasts great pizza and barbecue; and Asbury Park, which is engaged in a kind of revival, is still home to Bruce Springsteen's old haunt, the Stone Pony. Genovese's prose is sometimes perfunctory, but he does cover some great coastal events, such as the Around-the-Island Swim, which takes competitors around the jellyfish waters by Absecon Island, and, in Atlantic City, the Miss Deckadance pageant at Trump Marina.