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Into the Den by Jesse Mattson Bryant Park Press
book review by Mary Incontro
"Bruce, Johnny, a girl, the floor, the ceiling, the kitchen, a pretzel, two shot glasses, Jack Daniels, a dip tin, … a breath: I couldn’t stop spinning."
Into the Den is a contemporary version of Catcher in the Rye, and its protagonist is an amped-up Holden Caulfield. Sam Conway, a sixth year high school student at Saint Jude Academy where troubled boys get a second chance, hangs with guys who like to drink, party, do drugs, and torment faculty. He struggles with childhood abandonment by his mother and physical abuse by her boyfriend. Growing older, he trusts no one, a feeling reinforced by a breakup with his high school sweetheart, and at Saint Jude, Sam is a loner and a rebel, over-analyzing those around him and resisting efforts by others to get close to him. When he visits his ex-girlfriend, now at Harvard, Sam feels "like a house pet in the wrong cage."
Mattson ably sets each scene with a sharp eye for detail, as when Sam wryly describes a roadside motel room with "the typical hotel glow, two full size beds, a TV, cabinet, desk, bathroom, shower, shower cap, bedside table and a bible for anybody thinking about jumping out of our first floor window." In fact, Sam notices everything around him, and the book is rich with inner monologues, examples of Sam’s self-critical nature.
Even with his powers of perception, Sam misses something. In a Sixth Sense type of scene near the end, Sam finally separates illusion from reality, coming to terms with what really matters in relationships: "a simple understanding of each other."