Edward Burns is undoubtedly one of the entertainment industry’s most imaginative artists. As a filmmaker in his 20s, he first wrote a screenplay inspired by his Irish-American family and then shot it in his hometown of Valley Stream. The result, “The Brothers McMullen,” won the grand jury prize at Sundance and became a $19 million hit in 1995. After flirting with Hollywood stardom (including an acting role in “Saving Private Ryan”), Burns returned to independent filmmaking, producing about a dozen more films with skeleton crews and sometimes barely-there budgets, including 2012’s well-reviewed “A Fitzgerald Family Christmas.”
When COVID shut down the film industry in 2020, Burns used his free time to do something new: write his first novel. The title is “A Kid from Marlboro Road,” and it’s a coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old Irish Catholic boy who, like Burns, grows up on Long Island. Local readers will spot familiar landmarks like the Old Montauk Highway, the small neighborhood of Gibson and Chaminade High School in Mineola. In some ways, it’s a young adult version of “Bridge & Tunnel,” Burns’ television series for Epix that focuses on several Long Islanders navigating post-college life in the 1980s.
If the novel had been turned into a screenplay as originally planned, “I would never have allowed myself to write scenes,” Burns said in a recent interview. “I could never have afforded to make the film with the budget I was working with. The moment I decided to write it as a novel, I felt completely liberated.”
EEarlier this year, Burns, 56, found time to write and direct another film, “Millers in Marriage,” about three siblings (Gretchen Mol, Julianna Margulies and Burns) navigating their respective romantic relationships. The film recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Burns recently spoke with Newsday’s Rafer Guzmán.
How close is this novel to an autobiography?
Not at all, I would say I made most of it up. The world, the background of the characters and even some of the names are absolutely from my life and experiences. The way my father grew up with a (swear word) father who beat him and his mother – that’s all fact. But the fun for me as a writer is embellishing and dramatizing everything.
The story takes place in Gibson. What is that place and what does it mean to be from there?
Gibson is a tiny neighborhood on the south shore of Long Island. And it’s the southernmost part of Valley Stream. And it was this little working-class enclave. But for some reason, all the guys I grew up with – and I know the generation of guys older and younger than me – have a very special affinity for Gibson. My best friend still lives in Gibson, so I can come over all the time.
It took me a while to realize that the protagonist of the book has no name.
As I was writing, I realized that this boy is going through all these changes in his life… Everything he felt attached to is gone or slowly fading away. And I just thought, well, this boy is kind of disoriented. He doesn’t know who he is. So I’m not going to give him a name.
There is a scene where the protagonist writes a poem that is published. Did that happen to you as a child?
I did in high school. I actually won the Catholic Daughters of America poetry contest. He says, “If you admit you read poetry, you might get your ass kicked.” And of course, I was ridiculed endlessly for that poem. I kept my desire to be a writer to myself for a long time.
A large part of the book describes the world of your father and grandfather. Do you feel like you have witnessed the end of that world?
It’s not like it used to be. I was just playing golf with two of my oldest friends, guys I went to grammar school with. And both of them – all four of their mothers and fathers were native Irish, you know? So my childhood was spent in kitchens with parents who wore brogues.
In the book, the boy tries to adopt this accent a little bit. Remember that kids do that?
No, just to make fun of their friends’ parents’ voices! You know, they always wanted to be American. They were embarrassed when their parents had an Italian or Irish accent.
At the end of your book there are several family photos. Among them is a very striking picture of Rockaway Beach in the summer of 1941.
This is my father and his family. This is my father as a child. He is four years old. And this is my grandmother and my aunt and uncle.
And what does this photo tell you?
I’ve had it enlarged and framed since then because, as you said, it’s a moving picture. You grew up with no money, you know. When the character in the book says, “My father toasted to the fact that his father was no longer around” … I’ve heard that about my grandfather my whole life. Then you look at that picture and you see a happy family sitting there posing for that picture.
And the cover photo, the shirtless boy sitting on a street sign – is that who I think he is?
That’s me. But it’s a little like the book – it’s a Photoshopped image. So it’s part fact and part fiction. My daughter took a photo of my nephew on a street sign on Long Island. So I put my face from when I was 12 on that photo and then put that on an old photo of my parents’ house, which you see in the background.
What else are you working on?
It’s early days, but I’ve finally finished the script for the sequel to The Brothers McMullen. Shooting begins in the spring. My goal was to have it finished in time for the 30th anniversary. I’m right on schedule.
