Palisades Amusement Park the Setting for New Historical Novel

“Callahan’s or Hiram’s?”

“Callahan’s,” he replied confidently and without pause. 

And so the interview began. 

Meet local boy made good. Really, really good.

Born in Englewood and growing up in Cliffside Park, Palisades Park, Edgewater and Haledon, Brennert has made his mark in both television and literature. 

“I can’t recall a time when I didn’t want to be a writer,” Brennert remarked. 

Brennert sold his first commercial short story at the age of 18 for $35.

“I was so excited that it might as well have been $3,500,” he laughed.

After attending William Paterson College for a year, Brennert moved west to attend California State University at Long Beach, where he received his degree in English Literature and went on to do graduate work in film at UCLA. 

“I always knew that I wanted to write for television and film, and L.A. is the place to be if you want to do that,” Brennert said.

It was during a screenwriting class at UCLA that Brennert wrote a screenplay that scored him an agent that got him a pitch session where one of his pitches was picked up--The New Adventures of Wonder Woman--that aired from 1978-1979.

With the success of The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, Brennert went on to write and produce for some of the most popular television shows of the 1980s and 90s, including The Twilight Zone, China Beach, and L.A. Law, for which he won an Emmy Award.

Then “development hell” kicked in. Brennert spent six months writing a television mini-series that took NBC all of six minutes to reject. That’s when he decided to turn his attention to writing novels.

“I had an idea that I wanted to write a book about the Hawaiian Islands because Hawaii is such a beautiful place,” he said.

What began as a fictional novel about the Hawaiian Islands morphed into the historical novel, Moloka'i. Moloka’i follows the journey of seven-year-old Rachel Kalama at the turn of the 20th Century from her home to a segregated leprosy camp on the island of Moloka’i. Hawaii’s absorption into the United States, the early years of aviation and the leper colony that existed on the island of Moloka’i are historically woven into the narrative.

When Moloka’i was discovered by book clubs, it became, according to Brennert, “a stealth best seller."

The success of the novel allowed Brennert to become a full-time novelist. 

"I love being a full-time novelist, but I miss certain parts of the television industry--the camaraderie, the conversation with other writers--but I don’t miss the bullshit of the industry where studio executives think they’re writers and send you revisions that make no sense that you have to incorporate," he said. "Writing fiction is liberating. Even though I have an editor, I still have a say over my work."

Brennert’s next novel, Honolulu, illuminates the history of Korean immigration, Korean ‘picture brides,’ and life on a sugar plantation into the narrative of an arranged marriage between a Korean girl and a Korean man at the turn of the 20th Century.

Brennert’s current project, Palisades Park, a novel set in Palisades Amusement Park, is personal, and that’s what brings him back east where he’s currently researching the Palisades Amusement Park archives at the . 

“The happiest memories of my childhood are when I was living in Edgewater," Brennert said. "I’d climb the cliffs, my uncle would take me out on his boat on the Hudson, and I'd spend many summer days at Palisades Amusement Park.” 

The story about a family of dreamers with eccentric ambitions who own a  concession stand at Palisades Amusement Park, spans the park’s life from the Depression up to its closing in 1971. The story is centered on a young girl who grows up at the park watching champion high divers and dreams--as Brennert himself did--of becoming a champion diver. 

For those of you old enough to remember real-life park lifeguard named Bunty Hill, Brennert includes him in the story as the park lifeguard who trains the young girl. 

“I wanted to write a book that would share the happiest parts of my childhood while adding a broader historical perspective,” Brennert said.  

Brennert will be reading the first eight pages of his novel-in-progress, Palisades Park, at the Fort Lee Museum on Tuesday at 8 p.m.

When asked what he plans to do when he arrives in town, there was a momentary pause to honor the memory of Callahan’s before he answered, “Lunch at Hiram’s.”

What a great title for his fourth novel. 

Alan Brennert will be at The Fort Lee Museum, 1588 Palisade Ave., Fort Lee, Tues. Oct. 11th at 8 p.m.