 |
A chronicle of a young man’s coming-of-age in the early 1990s, Mountain’s memoir follows him across the western United States as he drinks, experiments with drugs, attempts to write a novel for the pure joy of learning how, and ponders the mystery of his good fortune at having been born in late twentieth-century America. Often exasperated by his girlfriend, Lonnie, who has taken a job at a local bookstore and become enamored of leftist politics, the author retaliates by sleeping in secret with a number of other women. Guilt at having deceived Lonnie weighs on him, and it comes as something of a relief when he learns that she’s secretly been cheating on him as well. Lonnie’s departure for an extended stay in Europe allows him to indulge his sexual urges without fear of reproach.
Mountain’s tale is a raucous ride into a life spent living in the moment. The women in Mountain’s life are constantly advising him to grow up, to take better care of his health, and to stop sexualizing everything. He considers them insufferable nags, but one gets the impression that the author may actually side with the women, at least on some level. Occasional glimpses into the protagonist’s voracious reading habits provide a welcome break from the drug-induced dorm room musings and explicit descriptions of sex. The saddest and most effective moments in the story are those in which the author and Lonnie affirm that they love each other, though they both sense that the relationship is doomed and that they have only this brief moment together. Mountain’s book is an impressively nostalgic book streaked with loneliness and heartache.