Surrounded by misfits, rednecks, and counterculture burnouts, John Gibson -- the reluctant heir of an alcoholic grandmother -- and Sarah McKay -- a commune-reared "hippie-by-association" -- search for self and community in the hole-of-a-town Boonville. As they try to assemble from the late-twentieth-century jumble of life the facts of sexuality, love, and death, and face the possibility of an existence without God, John and Sarah learn what happens when they dare to try to make art from their lives.
Book Details
ISBN 10: 0060516216 ISBN 13: 9780060516215
272 pages. First Published:11/1/2001 List Price:12.95 FREE to rent with membership
I don't know anything about the real-life basis of this book and I don't really care. I picked it up as a quick read, with no expectations. It's not the Great American Novel
Downside: It needs some editing. The storyline with Balostrasi went nowhere, served no purpose, and should have been left out. Sarah's character never filled out beyond the descriptions on the page. There were a few too many undifferentiated rednecks. It's a bit wordy (I didn't mind this but I some people might). The last chapter could have been omitted completely; it tied up ends that didn't need any more tying-up.
Upside: It was funny (people, get over yourselves). Even the characters that other reviewers have complained were mocked earned a measure of the author's and protagonist's affection and admiration (and the protagonist himself is mock-able). Anyone who thinks the characters were over-the-top doesn't get out enough; I know plenty of people who are this eccentric and more. The descriptions and ideas, while overwritten, are entertaining and sometimes insightful.
Captures the essence of Northern Cal coastal towns -- at least as they were in the 80s when I toured the area.
The only other book I've read in recent years in the same league is The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. But the subject matter of The Corrections (senile dementia) was painful, so The Corrections left me satiated but drained. Boonville left me satiated and energized.
This book is a prime example of all that's wrong with the American fiction scene these days. It got published (I'm guessing) because 1) the author paid for a great agent; and 2) it's in keeping with the "I know more about the setting than almost anyone who's gonna read this book." It gets details about location, and some history correct. But when you actually delve into the characters, you can't find an original one among them.
The prose is so tortured, the characters so hackneyed, that it's hard to make out exactly what the author was going for. How a book can be simultaneously so overwrought and underwrought is beyond me.
