Description:
"It's like my life is composed of all these separate parts that refuse to stay together, and the more I try to secure them, the more they repel each other, revealing the fragility of my plan." During a stifling hot Midwestern summer, Gary, 15, feels trapped by the suffocating limitations of his small Indiana town. His life is a turmoil of conflicting lies and allegiances, of forces pushing and pulling. His best friend, Wilson, constantly challenges him to drink and shoplift, and Gary always gives in, fearful of losing the relationship. His girlfriend, Lauryn, who disapproves of Wilson's influence, keeps Gary at arm's length, but he always gets carried away and tries to go further--and then they fight about it. His father is a drunken lout who refers to Lauryn as a "negrita," and Gary suppresses his anger and submits to his father's shoving and taunting. His life gets even more complicated when he and Wilson begin nightly joy rides in the big black Lincoln belonging to Mr. Roverson, a teacher who has been ostracized by the town for his affair with a student--and a man that Lauryn and his family despise, that Wilson scorns, and that Gary finds to be a helpful counselor. In this troubled novel, first-time author Kevin Waltman vividly captures the pain of adolescence, but offers no wise solutions--a pattern that has been characteristic of Push, a Scholastic paperback imprint that publishes the work of very new and very young authors. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell
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