American Youth by Phil Lamarche
In this taut and powerful novel, a young teenager is confronted by a terrible moral dilemma following a firearms accident at his home. Coerced by his mother to lie about his role in the incident, he finds he has nonetheless earned the admiration of a sinister group of boys at his school - calling themselves 'American Youth', they subscribe to a twisted notion of traditional, puritanical values. As he gets sucked into their orbit, and entangled with the girlfriend of the group's leader, he struggles to hold on to a sense of right and wrong. Set in a New England town riven by social and ideological tensions - as newcomers encroach on an old rural culture - this is a classic portrait of a boy's rites of passage in an America ill at ease with itself.
'Phil LaMarche's superbly edgy portrait of individual infighting and a community's uneasy, prideful attitude towards gun culture and nationhood produces a brief, yet spacious novelHis future as a writer aches with possibility.' * Guardian *
'Startling...superbly written...An understated portrait of a darkly divided America, it's as piercing and deadly as a bullet.' * Metro *
'Impressive...LaMarche promises much for the future' * Literary Review *
'Savagely beautiful, emotionally devastating...nothing less than a masterpiece' * Jerry Stahl, Los Angeles Times *
'Startling...superbly written...An understated portrait of a darkly divided America, it's as piercing and deadly as a bullet.' * Metro *
'Impressive...LaMarche promises much for the future' * Literary Review *
'Savagely beautiful, emotionally devastating...nothing less than a masterpiece' * Jerry Stahl, Los Angeles Times *
Phil LaMarche was born in New Hampshire. He received an MFA from Syracuse University, has taught fiction at Colgate and Syracuse Universities, and spends his summers working as a rescue kayaker. Phil LaMarche has had stories published in magazines and in the Robert Olen Butler Prize Story Anthology, one of which has been made into a film. He is 30 and lives in Syracuse, New York.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780340938041 |
| ISBN 10 | 0340938048 |
| Title | American Youth |
| Author | Phil Lamarche |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Year published | 2008-03-20 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |