Filmmaker-actor Edward Burns writes his first novel, Long Island-set coming-of-age story

Edward Burns is surely one of the most resourceful artists in the entertainment industry. As a first-time filmmaker in his 20s, he wrote a screenplay inspired by his Irish American family, 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 indie filmmaking, using skeleton crews and sometimes barely-there budgets to produce roughly a dozen more movies, including 2012’s well-reviewed "A Fitzgerald Family Christmas."

When COVID shut down the movie industry in 2020, Burns used his downtime to do something new: Write his first novel. Titled "A Kid from Marlboro Road," it’s a coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old Irish Catholic boy growing up, like Burns, on Long Island. Local readers will spot familiar landmarks like Old Montauk Highway, the little neighborhood of Gibson and Mineola’s Chaminade High School. In some ways, it's a young-adult version of "Bridge & Tunnel," Burns' television series for Epix that focused on several Long Islanders navigating post-college life in the 1980s.

If the novel had been a screenplay as initially planned, "There are scenes I never would have allowed myself to write," Burns said in a recent interview. "I could never afford to shoot it on the budgets I work with. The minute I decided to write this as a novel, I was completely liberated."

Earlier this year Burns, 56, found time to write and direct yet another film, "Millers in Marriage," about three siblings (Gretchen Mol, Julianna Margulies and Burns) navigating their respective romantic relationships. It recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Burns spoke recently with Newsday's Rafer Guzmán.

How close is this novel to a memoir?

Not at all, in that I would say I made up most of it. The world, and the background of the characters and even some of the names, absolutely come from my life and my experiences. The way my father grew up with an [expletive] of a father, who used to beat up him and his mother — that's all fact. But the fun for me, as a writer, is getting to embellish and dramatize.

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 whatever reason, all the guys that I grew up with — and I know the generation of guys older than me and younger than me — they all have a very special affinity for Gibson. My best friend still lives in Gibson, so I get to go by all the time.

It took me a while to realize that the protagonist of the book doesn't have a name.

Through the writing, I kind of recognized that this kid is going through all of these changes in his life ... Everything that he felt tethered to is gone, or slowly disappearing. And I just thought: Well, this kid's kind of adrift. He doesn't know who he is. So I won't give him a name.

You’ve got a scene where the protagonist writes a poem that gets published. Did that happen to you as a kid?

I did, in high school. That Catholic Daughters of America poetry contest — I actually did win that. He says, "If you admit to reading poetry, you might get your [butt] kicked." And certainly I was ridiculed endlessly for that poem. I kept my desire to want to be a writer to myself for a long time.

A lot of the book describes the world of your father and grandfather. Do you feel like you caught the tail end of that world?

It doesn't exist the way it used to. I just played golf with two of my oldest friends, guys that I went to grammar school with. And both of them — all four of their mothers and fathers were Irish-born, you know? So my childhood was spent in kitchens with parents who had brogues.

In the book, the kid tries to adopt that brogue a little bit. Is that something you remember kids doing?

No, only to make fun of their friends' parents' voices! You know, they always wanted to be American. You were embarrassed if your parents had an Italian accent or an Irish accent.

Your book has several family photos at the end. There's a really evocative picture at Rockaway Beach, in the summer of 1941.

That is my dad and his family. That's my dad as a kid. He’s 4 years old. And that’s my grandmother and my aunt and uncle.

And what does that photo say to you?

I have since had it blown up and framed because, like you said, it is an evocative shot. They grew up with no money, you know. In the book, when the character says, "My dad would toast to the fact that his father was no longer around" ... I heard that my whole life about my grandfather. Then you look at that picture, and that's a happy family sitting there, posing for that picture.

And the cover photo, the kid with no shirt sitting on top of a street sign — is that who I think it is?

That's me. But it’s kind of like the book — it’s a Photoshop image. So it's part fact and part fiction. My daughter took a picture of my nephew on a street sign out on Long Island. So I superimposed my face from when I was 12 years old onto that photo, and then superimposed that onto an old photograph of my childhood home that you see in the background.

What else are you working on?

It’s still early days, but I just finished the screenplay, finally, for the sequel to "The Brothers McMullen." I'll be shooting it in the spring. My goal was to get it done in time for the 30th anniversary. I'm right on schedule.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman