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Down the Shore
A GQ Best Book of the Month • A New York Post Must-Read Book •
A Flavorwire Book of the Week • A New York Daily News Can't-Put-Down Novel
“[Parish] has got chops, and a feel for dialogue, and is a talent in the making.”
—Bill Buford, The Wall Street Journal
“Read this book in a beach chair. . . . [A] worldy and propulsive debut.”— GQ
An exhilarating novel of reinvention, friendship, and ambition—from the Jersey Shore to St. Andrews in Scotland
Tom Alison has it all within his reach. He’s smart, handsome, and about to graduate from a prestigious East Coast boarding school. After that it’s off to the Ivy League and then a job on Wall Street, alongside the power brokers he’s been watching from a distance as the working-class son of a single mom. And then the very life his mother worked so hard to escape catches up with him when he gets busted selling drugs.
Lucky for Tom, there are places for boys and girls with ruined reputations. First, he returns to his roots on the Jersey Shore, reconnecting with a hard-living crew and cementing a bond with his new friend Clare Savage—the son of a recently disgraced financier. The two boys spend their summer surfing and partying. When fall arrives, they head to St. Andrews University in Scotland, a haven for Americans in need of a second chance and a favorite of the British ruling class. Tom and Clare escape to Scotland together, but it’s Tom who discovers a world shaped by even more powerful forces of greed and ambition than the one he left behind. Sucked into a maelstrom of sex, drugs, and status, Tom learns what it takes to break the rules—and how we can be broken by them.
Driven by a cast of young men and women living in an age of riotous prosperity, Down the Shore is an unflinching and unforgettable story of youth steeped in excess. Stan Parish has crafted a gripping novel that masterfully captures the lives of fallen financiers and the people they bring down with them—and reminds us that not even an ocean can separate us from our family, our friends, or our past.
A Flavorwire Book of the Week • A New York Daily News Can't-Put-Down Novel
“[Parish] has got chops, and a feel for dialogue, and is a talent in the making.”
—Bill Buford, The Wall Street Journal
“Read this book in a beach chair. . . . [A] worldy and propulsive debut.”— GQ
An exhilarating novel of reinvention, friendship, and ambition—from the Jersey Shore to St. Andrews in Scotland
Tom Alison has it all within his reach. He’s smart, handsome, and about to graduate from a prestigious East Coast boarding school. After that it’s off to the Ivy League and then a job on Wall Street, alongside the power brokers he’s been watching from a distance as the working-class son of a single mom. And then the very life his mother worked so hard to escape catches up with him when he gets busted selling drugs.
Lucky for Tom, there are places for boys and girls with ruined reputations. First, he returns to his roots on the Jersey Shore, reconnecting with a hard-living crew and cementing a bond with his new friend Clare Savage—the son of a recently disgraced financier. The two boys spend their summer surfing and partying. When fall arrives, they head to St. Andrews University in Scotland, a haven for Americans in need of a second chance and a favorite of the British ruling class. Tom and Clare escape to Scotland together, but it’s Tom who discovers a world shaped by even more powerful forces of greed and ambition than the one he left behind. Sucked into a maelstrom of sex, drugs, and status, Tom learns what it takes to break the rules—and how we can be broken by them.
Driven by a cast of young men and women living in an age of riotous prosperity, Down the Shore is an unflinching and unforgettable story of youth steeped in excess. Stan Parish has crafted a gripping novel that masterfully captures the lives of fallen financiers and the people they bring down with them—and reminds us that not even an ocean can separate us from our family, our friends, or our past.
- GenresFictionYoung Adult
288 pages, Hardcover
First published May 29, 2014
19 people are currently reading
918 people want to read
About the author
Stan Parish
3 books80 followers"Stan Parish has the stuff. For real." -- #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais
"The next great American crime novelist." -- New York Times bestselling author Christopher Reich
"Stan Parish delivers on every level." -- New York Times bestselling author Cristina Alger
"Parish is a thriller writer to watch." --Publishers Weekly
Stan Parish is the former editor-in-chief of The Future of Everything at The Wall Street Journal and the author of the novels LOVE AND THEFT and DOWN THE SHORE. His writing has appeared in in GQ, Esquire, Surface, The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine, among other publications. He holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and lives in Los Angeles."
"The next great American crime novelist." -- New York Times bestselling author Christopher Reich
"Stan Parish delivers on every level." -- New York Times bestselling author Cristina Alger
"Parish is a thriller writer to watch." --Publishers Weekly
Stan Parish is the former editor-in-chief of The Future of Everything at The Wall Street Journal and the author of the novels LOVE AND THEFT and DOWN THE SHORE. His writing has appeared in in GQ, Esquire, Surface, The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine, among other publications. He holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and lives in Los Angeles."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
June 1, 2014
I am a sucker for a book about youthful excess if it's written well. Down the Shore scratches that itch. The tale of Tom Alison, the scholarship student at a fancy boarding school, on probation for selling drugs, with a life and friends that intersect many different social strata. A random encounter at a party brings him into a friendship with Clare Savage, the rich son of a Wall Street financier whose parents have absconded with ill-gotten proceeds leaving Clare adrift on the tide. Together they venture off to St. Andrews University in Scotland - a school famous for second chances.
Down the Shore follows Tom and Clare on their journeys and sweeps us along as we watch the pair begin to grow up, begin to figure out who they are. I imagine that some reviewers may dislike the casual drug use and general narcissism and flailing about in the book, but it was precisely these qualities that made it so real for me - this is what it's like to be young and experimenting with who you want to be. We are none of us paragons of compassionate virtue at 18. Loved the story and its characters, found it all highly entertaining and well worth my time. A great summer read.
Down the Shore follows Tom and Clare on their journeys and sweeps us along as we watch the pair begin to grow up, begin to figure out who they are. I imagine that some reviewers may dislike the casual drug use and general narcissism and flailing about in the book, but it was precisely these qualities that made it so real for me - this is what it's like to be young and experimenting with who you want to be. We are none of us paragons of compassionate virtue at 18. Loved the story and its characters, found it all highly entertaining and well worth my time. A great summer read.
May 20, 2014
This book was a surprise for me. A good one. I was not quite sure if I would like this book. However I did. While Tom and Clare are not the most loveable guys and at best likeable can be a stretch but they were honest. This is what I liked the most about the book. The raw honestness that the author wrote in telling Tom and Clare's story. Despite all the drugs, alcohol, and women; Tom and Clare were good friends. I don't know what it was about reading about Tom and Clare hanging out together made me think of summer. Maybe because I am craving summer to come or maybe it was them having fun for the summer surfing and not having a care in the world. However the ending was a little disappointing. I was hoping for a stronger ending. It just left me going "meh". So I read this whole book for this. I would check out more books by this author.
February 11, 2018
I grabbed this one at Dollar Tree because I loved the cover, and it was a pretty quick read. Super anti-climatic if we're being totally honest, but if you like "teen angst" and foreign college stories, this one's for you.
December 21, 2021
Unless you like books about rich spoiled teens behaving badly in New Jersey and Scotland, don't bother. I kept hoping that the ending would be good, it wasn't.
December 7, 2019
I usually enjoy reading about rich people living a life that's so very different from my own. It's usually really fun to enter their world and see how differently they think and act, ect.... I did enjoy some parts of this I suppose. I found everything about it a bit on the shallow side, you never get to know the characters fully. In so many instances the author goes to great lengths describing a scene and it feels like it's all for nothing. I found it almost comical that Prince William makes a few appearances in the party scene lol I don't know what that even brought to the story. As soon as I finished this book I immediately checked to make sure the last half of the book didn't fall off .... in my opinion the ending raised alot of questions instead of answering them.
It is safe to say this was a disappointment.
I usually never write a negative review and I hate to do it but it is what it is🤷
It is safe to say this was a disappointment.
I usually never write a negative review and I hate to do it but it is what it is🤷
October 2, 2014
Finished Down the Shore by Stan Parish; [NON]Spoiler alert this book does NOT revolve around surfing although the cover suggests otherwise. Take some well-to-do suburban "kids" who have their future hedge fund lifestyle cut short after being busted for selling weed their HS Senior year. They then proceed to a private school in Scotland to party their college days away. Story went no where. Characters were unappealing. Plus I had to keep re-reading paragraphs because there are too many people in each scene (like I said, a constant party) for the paragraphs to flow in an efficient manner to tell a story. I give it two stars, one since I finished the book and the other for the cool cover design.
November 11, 2017
Parish creates a pounding character-driven story of high society meets blue collar fueled by champagne and cocaine. When no one is watching the boys go wild and it seems no one is ever watching. Parish's character and setting descriptions are lovely and he has an inventive use of language. I would have liked to have known what happens to Clare - his story line simply stops. Tom's friend Casey usurps his place in the story when he arrives in Scotland and Clare becomes a mere suggestion of a character. I don't buy the idea of prep school boys and high society teens drinking so much champagne. But the Prince of Wales shows up in this story as well -fiction is fiction. Parish is an author I'll be looking for in the future. His writing style is fresh and intense. I suspect time will only make it better.
May 24, 2018
For a debut novel, it wasn't that bad. The story could have been paced a little bit more, and characters more elaborated on. Otherwise it is a light read that you can set down and come back to at a later date. (Like I accidentally did)
October 19, 2020
I expected more. Story about a high school kid, acceptance to Ivy League rescinded due to drug bust. He goes to school in Wales. His interactions with the wealthy (he is not) and his mother are not especially interesting.
September 3, 2018
Story didn't really go anywhere other than to parties. Focused on pretentious, fake people and tried to make them sound interesting. Reminded me too much of people I try to avoid.
January 25, 2021
His second book (which I read first is stunning, a 5 star review. This one is just OK but it is interesting in the sense of paying attention to his writing style and how it is developing. However, a coming of age story centering around young people in a haze of drugs and alcohol and sexual exploration is no longer really of interest to me as I have aged.
August 15, 2015
The protagonist and narrator of Down the Shore, Tom, is a high school senior whose college plans just fell through. A few months before his narrative begins, Tom is busted and charged with selling pot. Harvard revokes his admission. He’s on probation, and since he can’t deal anymore, he’s largely on his own. He has never met his father. His mother is a loving and endearing character, but she’s very busy as operator of her own catering business. Tom helps his mother out, serving dinners and drinks to local 1%ers.
Tom jumps on the chance to attend St. Andrews boarding school in Scotland and start over. At least that’s what he hopes will happen. His friend Clare complicates things a bit. Clare’s father, a big-rolling investor, is on the lam after some pretty serious white collar crime. He’s ripped off a whole lot of people (some of whom may be dangerous), and Clare wants to go were nobody knows his name. So he applies to the same boarding school, St. Andrews, at the Jersey boys head off to Scotland together.
In Scotland, there is more money, more cocaine, much more beer. But the past ghosts find their way across the Atlantic. And in an expensive boarding school (filled with rich kids, even a prince), it isn’t long before Clare catches hell for the sins of his father.
I’m a Jersey born and bred surfer, and there are parts in this book where Parish doles out golden nuggets of pure nostalgia and Jersey goodness. I love the bantering of locals when Tom goes to a party on an oceanfront house in Spring Lake, and later when he chats up the owner of a local seafood restaurant about the surf conditions. Tom cruises around Long Beach Island in December, remarking on the abandoned, cold, wave-swept atmosphere that I love so well. If you grew up in New Jersey or spent your summers “down the shore” (you friggin’ Benny), you’ll find a lot to like in this pages.
This is a beach read, a book to plow through, a novel filled with fast-paced dialogue and checkered passages of action and reflection.
As is common with young first-person narrators, Tom sounds a bit older and perhaps a bit too worldly. Sure his mother runs a catering business, and he helps out, but does Tom really know the difference between Sancerre and Puligny-Montrachet?
My other issue with Tom is his seeming lack of drive and passion about the future. No first-year college student truly knows what they want out of life, but Tom doesn’t seem to want much of anything. He is planning to study economics with the hopes of becoming a hedge fund manager, perhaps the perfect gig for an apathetic kid. He hooks up with women, but he never initiates the encounters, and he doesn’t really seem to care before, during or after. He’s also dishonest and cowardly. So it’s not easy to root for him to succeed. I get irritated reading about rich kids running to and fro with no concern for others, no introspection, no realization of their privileged status. Tom’s Jersey friends, some scrappy dudes who come visit him in Scotland, are a lot more likeable and relatable.
The author is a former GQ editor who attended Lawrenceville, a wealthy Jersey private school, and St. Andrews, so Tom is more like an alter-ego than a fictional narrator. Perhaps the narrator stuck too close to the facts to the detriment of the fiction. Still, I think this novel is a solid effort, and it’s a good choice if you’re headed “down the shore” any time soon.
Cheers!
Tom jumps on the chance to attend St. Andrews boarding school in Scotland and start over. At least that’s what he hopes will happen. His friend Clare complicates things a bit. Clare’s father, a big-rolling investor, is on the lam after some pretty serious white collar crime. He’s ripped off a whole lot of people (some of whom may be dangerous), and Clare wants to go were nobody knows his name. So he applies to the same boarding school, St. Andrews, at the Jersey boys head off to Scotland together.
In Scotland, there is more money, more cocaine, much more beer. But the past ghosts find their way across the Atlantic. And in an expensive boarding school (filled with rich kids, even a prince), it isn’t long before Clare catches hell for the sins of his father.
I’m a Jersey born and bred surfer, and there are parts in this book where Parish doles out golden nuggets of pure nostalgia and Jersey goodness. I love the bantering of locals when Tom goes to a party on an oceanfront house in Spring Lake, and later when he chats up the owner of a local seafood restaurant about the surf conditions. Tom cruises around Long Beach Island in December, remarking on the abandoned, cold, wave-swept atmosphere that I love so well. If you grew up in New Jersey or spent your summers “down the shore” (you friggin’ Benny), you’ll find a lot to like in this pages.
This is a beach read, a book to plow through, a novel filled with fast-paced dialogue and checkered passages of action and reflection.
As is common with young first-person narrators, Tom sounds a bit older and perhaps a bit too worldly. Sure his mother runs a catering business, and he helps out, but does Tom really know the difference between Sancerre and Puligny-Montrachet?
My other issue with Tom is his seeming lack of drive and passion about the future. No first-year college student truly knows what they want out of life, but Tom doesn’t seem to want much of anything. He is planning to study economics with the hopes of becoming a hedge fund manager, perhaps the perfect gig for an apathetic kid. He hooks up with women, but he never initiates the encounters, and he doesn’t really seem to care before, during or after. He’s also dishonest and cowardly. So it’s not easy to root for him to succeed. I get irritated reading about rich kids running to and fro with no concern for others, no introspection, no realization of their privileged status. Tom’s Jersey friends, some scrappy dudes who come visit him in Scotland, are a lot more likeable and relatable.
The author is a former GQ editor who attended Lawrenceville, a wealthy Jersey private school, and St. Andrews, so Tom is more like an alter-ego than a fictional narrator. Perhaps the narrator stuck too close to the facts to the detriment of the fiction. Still, I think this novel is a solid effort, and it’s a good choice if you’re headed “down the shore” any time soon.
Cheers!
June 1, 2014
Stan Parish shows great promise in this debut coming of age story that jumps from 2003 New Jersey to St Andrews Scotland. Tom Alison's Ivy League academic hopes are thwarted by a drug arrest, classmate Clare Savage's by the massive fraud perpetrated by his financier father. Going to school in Scotland is meant to give them distance from their problems ; they're too young to realize you can't usually run away from anything.
While the characters may seem preternaturally mature or overly narcissistic to many, the book succeeds because of Parish's writing style, which is a fine balance between the commercial and literary. He's particularly adept at describing mood, behaviour and observing the details of the physical environment his characters find themselves in. I'll hope for more from this author.
While the characters may seem preternaturally mature or overly narcissistic to many, the book succeeds because of Parish's writing style, which is a fine balance between the commercial and literary. He's particularly adept at describing mood, behaviour and observing the details of the physical environment his characters find themselves in. I'll hope for more from this author.
May 5, 2014
*Disclaimer. I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway*
Another case where Goodreads needs 1/2 stars.
An okay young adult book. The characters were all unloveable, narcissistic and had very little redeeming value as human beings. That said the writing was good enough to keep the flaws of the book somewhat in check. The main reason I gave the book the rating I did was because the ending was a big disappointment. In the last 30 pages there were several ways that the plot could have gone...many more interesting and exciting ways than the author chose to close the novel. Had Parish been more daring in his choice of ending, the book would have been much more satisfying and would have gotten a better rating.
Another case where Goodreads needs 1/2 stars.
An okay young adult book. The characters were all unloveable, narcissistic and had very little redeeming value as human beings. That said the writing was good enough to keep the flaws of the book somewhat in check. The main reason I gave the book the rating I did was because the ending was a big disappointment. In the last 30 pages there were several ways that the plot could have gone...many more interesting and exciting ways than the author chose to close the novel. Had Parish been more daring in his choice of ending, the book would have been much more satisfying and would have gotten a better rating.
September 4, 2014
Wow, I just could not finish this book. Which is pretty unusual for me. The characters were completely unlikable and so full of themselves, I couldn't make myself read more than about 60 pages. The partying was excessive, and I really just didn't care what happened to any of the characters. The writing itself isn't so terrible that I wouldn't try to read something from him again, but if I do I'll definitely be borrowing it from the library.
Edit: I take it back. I just looked through this and the sentences are so short, choppy and non-descriptive I don't think I could read anything else by him
Edit: I take it back. I just looked through this and the sentences are so short, choppy and non-descriptive I don't think I could read anything else by him
September 28, 2014
A great read. I enjoyed following Tom and Clare around NJ and across the ocean to Scotland.i was routing for them in all their hijinks,and kept hoping they would learn their lesson about drug and alcohol abuse, but they always escaped that. Tom talked about his arrest, so he wouldn't deal any more, but he and everyone it seemed, used a lot, all the time with no consequences. At the end, I felt cheated.it seemed there should have been an ending that really accounted for the characters .
August 2, 2014
Tom Alison is smart, handsome, and about to graduate from a East Coast boarding school followed by an Ivy League college and a job on Wall Street. And then he gets busted selling drugs. To salvage his life, he heads to St. Andrews University in Scotland, a haven for Americans in need of a second chance and a favorite of the British ruling class. What follows is drugs, drugs and more drugs. This book, while highly recommended, is a story of self-indulgence and excess. A waste of time!
May 13, 2015
So, reading this book was an accident. I was searching the library catalog for something else and this entry came up instead -- completely unrelated but it captured my attention. I REALLY like Mr. Parish's writing style and his use of words! The story itself is interesting and reading the back flap makes me wonder how much of it is the author's first or second hand experience as he attended those schools. A little coarse at times, but the story is about boys and partying so.....
April 16, 2014
I was a lucky winner of this book here on Goodreads.com. I found the writing to be decent & liked the various characters but the story just didn't flow the way I like them to. Not a bad read...but not one that I would likely read again. I would like to read another book by Stan Parish sometime to give him another chance.
July 5, 2014
Sometimes I just like a well-written book despite the lack of complex plot or characterization. This is such a book. I liked all the scenes in New Jersey because that's where I live. I usually despise high school and college kids with unlimited funds, no moral compass and no consequences for bad behavior, but this is the exception. Enjoyable, fast-paced read.
August 14, 2014
This kind of book - about the idle, reckless rich and those who aspire to be them - is a guilty pleasure, even more so when the people and places referenced ring true. I especially enjoyed this book as a New Jerseyan and Scotophile (...that probably isn't a word).
September 14, 2014
I didn't read this right away because I thought it was about surfing. It really isn't. It sort of reminded me of The Goldfinch, but in a good way. I have no idea how to describe this book. It's very good and a very quick read.
October 15, 2020
This book and it’s plot lines hopped around so much I couldn’t keep it straight. It never really told a true story, it was boring to say the least. The author is good at writing though if you’re into that.
April 25, 2014
Received Arc as a Goodreads giveaway...
Review to follow.
Review to follow.
November 2, 2014
It's a good entertaining read... a little pretentious... kind of like watching the Kardashians
July 8, 2014
Great Book! Won this book through Good Reads :) Thank you so much
August 24, 2014
Giving it two stars bc i actually finished it. Was intrigued bc it was written by a GQ writer, but its characters were awful.
July 9, 2014
Couldn't get into this.
March 26, 2015
My friend wrote this book. A great debut novel.
December 13, 2014
Parts I liked, parts not so much. I liked the first half more than the second.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews