Even if you more Gen-Y than X, these 20-something reads might be just what you’re looking for. Tell the truth, those adult books you’ve been reading lately are just so…middle-aged. I mean, I know the Da Vinci Code was cool, but do you really want to always be reading the same books as your parents? Change it up a little with these titles about teens who have just hit their twenties and are trying to figure it all out…
Slacker Fiction
French Milk by Lucy Knisley
2009
03.15
03.15
In this charming graphic memoir, twenty-two-year-old artist Lucy Knisley narrates her trip to France with her mother in photographs and drawings. Lucy is about to graduate from college, so her parents spring for the ultimate graduation present—a six week trip in the spring of 2007 to Paris where she and her mother will stay in a rental apartment and sample all the City of Light has to offer. In many ways, this is a typical travel memoir—Lucy lists and draws her everyday experiences, including all the yummy French food she consumes (she estimates having eaten at least 60 croissants and a “metric ton of chocolate mousse” during her stay) and the rich, thick whole French milk she drinks constantly. But what makes this lil’ blue graphic novel special are the very intimate and emotional details of Lucy’s life that are tucked in and around all the sketches of museums and cafes. She unselfconsciously chronicles the fits of depression she falls into when she thinks about leaving the security of school behind, her lusty longings for her boyfriend, and all the times her mother gets on her last nerve. She confesses her doubts that she’ll ever make it as a cartoonist and shares her self-loathing about her “fat American feet” that don’t fit into the sleek European-sized shoes. Lucy is on the scary cusp of adulthood, and even the delights of Paris can’t ease those growing pains. Lucy’s antics will make you chuckle and sigh in recognition, especially if you’re living through that anxious time in your late teens or early twenties. And it was the perfect read for me, as I embark on my own first trip to Paris today! Because of the length of my stay and the jet lag I’m sure to suffer on my return, please don’t expect a new post from me until the end of the month. So au revoir mes amis until then!
The Crazy School by Cornelia Read
2008
06.01
06.01
Sarcastic, twenty-something amateur sleuth Madeline Dare, grown-up child of hippie parents, takes a job as a teacher at an elite, if fairly cult-ish private school for troubled teens. The head guru in charge, Santangelo, promises desperate parents results, no matter what technique he has to employ to get them, including isolation and humiliation. Madeline, who’s having nasty flashbacks about her own dad’s bizarre child-raising methods, is having serious doubts about whether she can continue to teach using Santangelo’s “unorthodox” techniques. Then, two of her fav students turn up dead and Madeline rejects the hypothesis that the kids offed themselves and instead begins to dig for evidence of corruption at the highest levels. Turns out that pseudo-suicides are the LEAST of what shady Santangelo has under his ridiculously pretentious opera cape. This bitterly funny mystery by Edgar Award-nominated author Cornelia Read has a great cast of teen characters, but the best voice is that of jaded, wickedly witty slacker sleuth Madeline Dare herself. This is one seriously dark comedic nailbiter.
You’re Not You by Michelle Wildgen
2007
09.01
09.01
Bec is a college student at loose ends. Not crazy about her advertising major, she’s successfully avoided deciding what to do with her life thus far by partying hard with her roommate and best friend Jill and carrying on a guilty affair with a married professor. Then, while looking for a new part-time job that pays more than waitressing, she answers an ad for a home health-care aide. Expecting a weak, bed-ridden old lady, Bec is surprised to find that wheelchair-confined Kate, afflicted with Lou Gehrig’s disease, is young, smart, and sophisticated, with a wicked sense of humor. Like this exchange: “‘Oh my god,’ I said embarrassed. ‘You think I’m like those TV movies where the person with the disease teaches everyone how to live.’ Kate laughed soundlessly. ‘It’s always so nice of us.’” When Bec begins working for Kate and her husband Evan, she discovers a whole new world of witty conversation, gourmet cooking, and urbane dinner parties. Soon Bec is so immersed in Kate’s life that it becomes difficult for her to distinguish where Kate’s life leaves off and her own begins. Kate is dying, but Bec’s life has just begun. Will she ever be able to establish her own identity and personality while under Kate’s charismatic shadow? This sharply observed novel, full of painful realizations, hilarious conversations and some of the best food descriptions I’ve ever read, perfectly captures that time in our early 20’s when our adult identities are beginning to form and we are so easily influenced by those around us whose personalities are set and stronger than our own.
Same Difference and Other Stories by Derek Kirk Kim
2007
05.03
05.03
Graphic novels are a format, not a genre. So even though these melancholy autobiographical short stories are told in illustrated panels, they really belong on my Slacker list. Kim pens short, poignant pieces about love, loss, fear and failing in your insecure twenties. Common experiences like living off of Raman noodles and regretting that crush that you never came clean to from high school will ring almost painfully true to the Gen X and Y crowd. Full of laughter tinged with sadness, Same Difference provides a pretty accurate window into that period of your life when you’re almost a grown-up, but not quite.
Grosse Pointe Girl: Tales from a Suburban Adolescence by Sarah Grace McCandless and illustrated by Christine Norrie
2007
05.03
05.03
It’s the late 80’s/early 90’s in the pricey Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and Emma Harris’s rites of passage include securing the right jeans, (Guess?) jelly shoes (pink) and friends (Stephanie, NOT Katrina) While I hear that at the time of this review the 80’s are hot again (just take a gander at the Rainbow-Brite colored VH1 “I Love the 80’s” docu-series) I’m not quite sure that today’s teens will be into this spot-on rendering of 80’s adolescence. But if you’re into resurrecting leg-warmers, Esther’s (aka Madonna’s) virginity, and Boone’s Farm-induced make-out sessions, you will thoroughly enjoy meeting Sarah McCandless’s Grosse Pointe Girl. There’s also some great graphic illustrations of Emma’s suppressed suburban upbringing by Christine Norrie (And if you’re 30+ and reading this list, then I can safely guarantee you’ll love it!)
Better Than Running at Night by Hilary Frank
2007
05.03
05.03
Ellie is a savvy, street-smart native New Yorker, and as she starts her freshman year at a art college in New England, she’s pretty sure she will find herself at the top of her painting class. After all, she’s been creating dark, brooding canvases for years, full of blood, gore and despair. Her stuff is deep, man. Which is why it comes as a surprise to discover that just because she CAN paint doesn’t mean she does it WELL. Ellie learns some tough life lessons as she navigates her way through her first year, and not only those that come by way of brush and canvas. She finds out a serious secret about her parents, discovers that her hip, hot artist b-friend is actually a cheating asshole, and hardest of all, that painting is about craft and creating, not just emoting. NPR writer, now novelist Frank has written a brilliant send-up of the art school world with a very real, very sincere heroine at its center. IMHO, the best debut novel of 2002.
Shopgirl by Steve Martin
2007
05.03
05.03
Mirabella is just standing around at the fine glove counter at Neiman’s waiting for her life to begin. Ray Porter is a wealthy, world-weary businessman who is clueless about women. How these two meet and navigate their somewhat odd relationship is the basis for funnyman Steve Martin’s first stab at fiction. Full of wicked truth about male/female relationships, Shopgirl is short enough to finish over a latte at Starbucks while you’re waiting for your blind date to show up.
