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The underpinning of this novel is relatively straightforward. A man who has recently attempted suicide looks back on his life, particularly his high school years. However, if examined in microscopic detail, lives are so multi-faceted that drawing concrete conclusions from the past is often as difficult as making unswayable resolutions about the future. Still, memories are the books in each individual's mental library, and the narrator-protagonist here takes readers through a compelling selection.
Billy Bright is a young Midwesterner in the turbulent 1960s. As graduation nears, so do major decisions about the rest of his life. His father, a shattered veteran of World War II, wants him to stay in his small town, attend the local junior college, and seek a trainee position with a grocery retailer. His girlfriend wants him to attend UCLA, study acting, and make something of himself. His pals, facing similar decisions, are hard-pressed to know what they're going to do, much less offer advice. So most of the time Billy and his friends drink beer, get into trouble, and battle the demons within them, which include severe mental illness for one and the ever-expanding war in Vietnam for all.
Paralleling Billy's story with his father's war experiences, Randle writes with sympathy and insight and wisely foregoes the sentimentality that sometimes accompanies coming-of-age tales or memoirs. His prose is deft without seeming so, save for the occasional archaism. He captures well the feeling of knowledge without power that young people feel. His characters are recognizable and ring true as they stumble toward maturity. While this is a prequel to one of Randle's other novels, it can and should be read for its own literary impact, which it definitely delivers.