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Steven Sorrentino had moved from West Long
Branch, New Jersey, to New York City, with dreams of finding
love and Broadway stardom. Venturing out of the closet and
feeling free (at last!) from small-town America, Steven found
his niche among the quirky and kindred spirits of the city's
musical theater hopefuls.
But on Christmas Eve of 1980, just after
Steven arrived in New Jersey to celebrate the holidays, his
father contracted a sudden and rare neurological disorder
that left him paralyzed. Stepping up to the plate and back
into the closet, Steven returned to West Long Branch to help
the family out and to take over Clint's Corner, his father's
luncheonette. He soon found himself at the grill flipping
porkroll (the unofficial state meat) and serving a counter
full of eccentrics including Googie the Gizmo, Half Cup Harold,
and Steven's old high-school jock crush, Brent Jamison. And
always at his side was the most colorful of them all, Dolores,
the crusty head waitress with coke-bottle glasses, a wayward
wig, and a particular flair for butchering the English language.
From this unusual post, Steven watched as his ailing father
refused to accept defeat.
Confined to a wheelchair, yet determined
and optimistic, Clint Sorrentino ignored all the medical setbacks
and even managed to further his own career in local politics.
Yet for Steven, the more his father triumphed over the obstacles,
the more his own life seemed to stall.
Guilty, confused, and stuck behind the
counter, Steven made a shocking and desperate decision --
not knowing that he was about to stumble upon the secret of
his father's resilience. Steven had returned home to save
his father, but in the end, his father saved him.
An insightful, bitingly hilarious, and
poignant debut, Luncheonette is an uplifting reminder
of the unexpected lessons life brings and of the inspiration
we find in the least likely places.
Steven Sorrentino has worked in
public relations since 1987 where he began as a publicist
for Harper & Row, staying with that company during several
transformations and becoming Vice President and Executive
Director of Publicity at HarperCollins Publishers. He directed
campaigns for numerous #1 New York Times bestsellers
as Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s Barbarians at the
Gate; Oliver North's Under Fire; Newt Gingrich's
To Renew America; and Margaret Thatcher's Downing
Street Years and Path to Power. He managed the
original publicity campaign for John Gray's phenomenally successful
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. Sorrentino
has worked with a wide array of controversial and political
figures; film, television, and sports stars; modern-day spiritualists
and literary authors. These include the Reverend Ralph Abernathy,
Wayne Gretzky, Marianne Williamson, Bob Colacello, Jay Leno,
Cybill Shepherd, Valerie Harper, Eric Bogosian, Gary Hart,
Christopher Darden, Donald Spoto, Leon Uris, Dan Quayle, Bobbie
Ann Mason, Armistead Maupin, Thomas Moore, and others. One
of the highlights of his career in PR was creating a campaign
for one particular Hollywood memoir and then taking it on
the road with its author: the legendary Ginger Rogers.
In his capacity as spokesperson for authors,
the publishing house, and occasionally the industry, Sorrentino
has been interviewed on "Entertainment Tonight", "Nightline",
"CNBC", "Fox News Channel", and "MSNBC".
In 2001, Sorrentino ended his fourteen-year
career at HarperCollins to write a memoir about his experiences
as a young man taking over the family business when his father
suddenly became ill. Luncheonette will be published
in February 2005.
Steven Sorrentino lives in New York City.
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