Ellington Boulevard: A Novel in A-Flat.

Langer, Adam (author).

Langer’s Crossing California (2004) and The Washington Story (2005) depicted Chicago with a native’s affection. He’s living in New York now, and Ellington Boulevard attempts to capture Manhattan’s quintessence as well. (A wag might wonder when we can anticipate Motoring Mulholland.) It’s about real estate, a social force everywhere but especially so, of course, in his adopted city. The large cast of characters—a musician, a book-review editor, her grad-student husband, a writer, a real-estate broker, a mortgage broker, a dog, two pigeons, and many more people—orbits elliptically around a small apartment on the titular street, all of them connected in surprising ways but most meaningfully by the activity surrounding the apartment’s sale. Readers fearing a social drama can relax: this is a thoughtful comedy that makes good use of Langer’s remarkable ability to think himself into his characters’ histories. Indeed, it’s subtitled A Novel in A-Flat, and the jaunty pace suits the musical-theater themes running throughout. The large ensemble keeps us from developing close relationships with the characters, but those who like layered stories with a sense of place will find themselves humming along.