Monday, December 30, 2013

Brewster / Mark Slouka 281p.

Jon Mosher, son of Holocaust survivors, grows up and attends high school in a small town in 1960s upstate New York called Brewster. He carries a personal loss within him which connects him with Ray Cappiciano, a seeming tough guy whose personal tragedy is even more vivd in the form of his horribly abusive ex-cop father. Jon discovers track as a means of escaping his unhappy home, while Ray falls in love, but their friendship may not be enough to see them through to happily-ever-after.

This was a reasonably suspenseful story, and a nice portrayal of friendship. Slouka's portrayal of Ray's violent father is insightful and smart. But if you're going to write about adolescent angst in a forgotten corner of upstate New York, you'll have to run fast to escape the shadow of Richard Russo's Empire Falls, and I'm obliged to report that Slouka's writing lacks that escape velocity. And there was just way too much Oliver Stone-ish Boomer cliche. Vietnam, John Fogerty's Fortunate Son, grass-smoking free lovers, Woodstock...blech. I suppose it's possible to write something fresh about this era, but it didn't happen here.

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