This quirky, charming memoir of a young guy trying to find himself and figure out his place in the world during the Reagan years is both enlightening and entertaining, without ever resorting to the sentimental or the sensational. Magnuson (The Right Man for the Job), who teaches creative writing at Southern Illinois University, has taken the bold step of writing his memoir from a third-person point of view, and presents readers with a completely convincing (and unflattering) portrait of himself as a crude, vulgar, confused and mostly unlikable heterosexual guy, "guided in life by his dick." His father was a school superintendent, his mother taught him about classical music and his intelligence was high. Even so, Magnuson left home and lived illegally in a closed school building, played the drums, drifted between jobs, drank far too much and coasted in consecutive sexual relationships because it was easy. Magnuson paints a credible characterization of male aimlessness and convinces readers that Mike is sincere even in the height of his obnoxiousness—he truly thinks that farting loudly will impress his pick-up from the night before. At times Magnuson is so determined to prove Mike's lummoxness that one may have trouble imagining that this is the man who grew up to write this memoir. There are moments of unusual insight—Mike spent a summer living in a lesbian collective, which taught him much about relating to women—and ultimately Magnuson brings readers beneath the gross, frightened surface of his younger self to show a depth and vulnerability that is both touching and vibrant. (On-sale Feb. 5)
Forecast:If Magnuson is as captivating in person as he is in print, the marketing campaign (which includes national broadcast interviews, a national radio campaign and author appearances in the Midwest) will help his book get off its fat a** and into buyers' hands.
