It is 1969. The war in Vietnam rages on. Nineteen-year-old David Faust faces the loss of his student deferment and, consequently, the military draft, if he doesn't buckle down and study. But there are too many other things to worry about this summer. His older brother is MIA. His father, who lost the use of an arm in a mining accident, grows increasingly impatient and irascible. David's mother seeks solace in martinis. David himself is bored, he's friendless, he's worried, and he's a virgin. The best part of every day for David is dawn, when he rows a canoe through the morning fog while remembering his sole sexual experience and pretending to be a spy.
Then come the McParlands. The major, his wife Sharon, and little Jackie. They move into the home directly across the lake from the Faust dock. The major and his son are even more irascible than David's father. But Sharon McParland ... Sharon is young and sexy and very, very lonely....
The Ruin of Us All, like Catcher in the Rye and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, perfectly captures adolescent angst and alienation. But this novel also captures the dark, looming fear of war and the crippling effects of loneliness -- as well as the desperate actions some will resort to in an effort to escape those conditions.
In this short but powerful novel, critically acclaimed author Randall Silvis once again plumbs the psyches of the lost and forlorn, and he does so, as always, with exquisitely rendered prose.
‘Randall Silvis gets to the hearts and souls of his characters like few other, if any, novelists.’ New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart
Genre: Literary Fiction
Then come the McParlands. The major, his wife Sharon, and little Jackie. They move into the home directly across the lake from the Faust dock. The major and his son are even more irascible than David's father. But Sharon McParland ... Sharon is young and sexy and very, very lonely....
The Ruin of Us All, like Catcher in the Rye and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, perfectly captures adolescent angst and alienation. But this novel also captures the dark, looming fear of war and the crippling effects of loneliness -- as well as the desperate actions some will resort to in an effort to escape those conditions.
In this short but powerful novel, critically acclaimed author Randall Silvis once again plumbs the psyches of the lost and forlorn, and he does so, as always, with exquisitely rendered prose.
‘Randall Silvis gets to the hearts and souls of his characters like few other, if any, novelists.’ New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart
Genre: Literary Fiction
Used availability for Randall Silvis's The Ruin of Us All