This is set in 1992 and following the life of Vincent "Vim" Sweeney. Vim is an eighteen-year-old who falls for his friend and bandmate's girlfriend, loses his virginity in a one-night stand and falls into heavy drinking. He lives with his mom and step-dad and feels estranged from his father, who was largely absent while he was growing up. This is an angst-y coming of age novel. Bryan Charles writes some of these like stream of consciousness and the effect is you feel like you are in Vim's head. Unfortunately, Vim is a shallow eighteen year old with delusions of grandeur and pretended depth. I did not find him a particularly likely protagonist. Vim sexualizes his interaction with women throughout this book and drinks way too much. I didn't think he grew much through the novel, though he does learn to express his anger to his dad and let go of some bitterness. He is still a punk kid and I found the pop-culture references a little cliche. ( )

Fantastic example of what a coming-of-age novel can be. Avoids sentimentality and really moves forward thanks to Charles's ability to write really profound, wonderful sentences. Essentially the tale of a kid graduating HS in the early 90s. But it takes place in Michigan, so it has this great feeling of uniqueness. I never felt like Charles was writing a cliched story. Amazing how that can be accomplished with a setup that has been done to death. ( )

An engaging novel that fluctuates between brilliant, touching, confusing, offensive, and pretentious. Very well written and interesting take on the well used theme of "entering the real world. (Although I do find the underground punk music scene portions of the book to be a bit annoying.)

Gets a small bonus point for being set in my home state of Michigan. ( )

I read this in an afternoon not long after it's release. The draw for me was that it was set in Kalamazoo, where I live, written by a guy around my age. To me it read as non fiction due to how well he pegged our town. I don't rightly know if others would get the book as well if they didn't know the area, but anyone from the Kalamazoo area would love it! ( )

As if he read my senior year of high school and wrote it down in lyrical, simple prose. Required reading for any person who grew up in Kalamazoo or southwest Michigan. Or any one who ever grew up. Really excellent voice. I thought he was me. ( )