Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her-who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves-Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. Groovy, man.Īfter surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself. Vietnam, Woodstock, road trips, and acid trips: a sweetly bittersweet, surprising, even melancholy bildungsroman set against a world in flux. All main characters are white, but Lucas’ African-American conscientious objector counselor, Charles, offers his perspective on the war and the treatment of African-American soldiers. Readers fascinated with this time period will find much to enjoy. Strasser perfectly captures the golden haze of youth and life on the cusp of adulthood. Before he gets to Woodstock, he’ll have to wrestle with his views on the war and the draft and escape a few hairy situations with his friends, including a memorable tussle with a biker gang. There are a few bright spots: the lovely Tinsley and the upcoming Woodstock music festival, which promises to be epic.
He’s also been rejected by the only college he had much hope of getting into, closing off his best shot at avoiding the draft. But his parents seem headed for divorce, and his girlfriend is off at camp, sending letters hinting at a possible breakup.
High school grad Lucas Baker is working for his dad’s bulk-mail facility for the summer, and it’s not exactly stimulating, but he has the company of his good friends Arno and Milton and plenty of acid and grass at the ready. The prolific Strasser ( Price of Duty, 2018, etc.) offers a semiautobiographical account of a transformative Long Island summer in 1969.
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