Eugene Nadelman: A Tale of the 1980s in Verse

A tale of young love and American manners in the era of Ronald Reagan and MTV, Eugene Nadelman is a 1980s story full of humor, pathos, and pop cultural references--written in the witty sonnet form of Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin.

It's 1982, and teenaged Eugene attends his cousin's bar mitzvah in suburban Philadelphia. There he meets a kindred spirit in the savvy, sensitive Abigail. But when Eugene's best friend also becomes smitten with Abby, a tragic rivalry ensues and, just as in the Pushkin poem, there is a duel and one character kills another. (Well, in a Dungeons & Dragons game in this case.)

Eugene and Abby's romance deepens against a backdrop of 1980s music, fashion, and VCR movie rentals--with more serious world events such as AIDS and the Cold War hovering overhead. For these teens, though, one question is paramount: can their love survive a summer separation? With Eugene at sleepaway camp and Abby touring Europe, temptations abound and they are each put to the test.

Eugene Nadelman takes us back to a time before smartphones and Starbucks, when computer nerds played Zork and Wizardry on green-on-black screens, Casey Kasem counted down the top 40, and mix tapes included Duran Duran, Adam Ant, and the Violent Femmes. So, move over, Stranger Things and Wet Hot American Summer--1980s nostalgia now has a poem.