Duck Alley Author:Jim Defilippi The lifetimes of two friends swirl together in humor and tragedy, soaked in guilt. Jay Tasti and Albert Nikozak grew up in the 1950's and 1960's in a tough little neighborhood of Long Island called Duck Alley. On most days, the sounds of the garbage cans clattering and the railroad cars rumbling by were drowned out by their teary-eyed la... more »ughter. Days were filled with baseballs, dreams, and absurd jokes. Their friendship held steady into adulthood, even as Jay became a school teacher and Albert chose to live life as a pimp and successful fence with tentative ties to organized crime. But when the decomposed body of a teenage girl is found half-washed out of the earth in upstate New York, their lifelong friendship is given the ultimate test. Set into motion is a series of events that will test the two friends' commitment to each other, to themselves, and most of all to their sense of honor. An ambitious and vindictive D.A., an abusive and alcoholic father, a loving but isolated wife all play their parts as Jay and Albert meet in bars and basic training, court rooms and prisons, on train tracks, in hunting shacks, and in grave yards. Their fate-driven story ends at the soggy bottom of Long Island, with a return to the boyhood sands of Jones Beach. Jay feels "woozy and validated" as he attains a measure of redemption by discovering a new way of looking back at those Duck Alley Days of their youth.« less