What I'm Reading Now

I'm reading a great novel now, I love discovering new fiction before some TV Schmuck picks it as a Book Club book and it immediately becomes over-exposed and trendy. This book came out in 2003, so I don't think we're in danger of Kelly Ripa giving it her stamp of approval. It's called Bruiser, by Ian Chorao. It's about a nine-year-old boy growing up on the Upper West Side in 1970s Manhattan. One day he agrees to runaway with the girl who lives across the alley... Wonderful narrative from a child's point of view, delightfully dark without being sentimental or self-indulgent.

"Teenage girls are all right, but I don't like the boys. Teenage boys look like lizards. Their eyes are always half shut, fooling you that they're calm and nice. But right then their eyes snap open wide. And they're running at you and you start runing, but they're bigger and faster and they catch you like nothing. You squirm, but they've got you tight. And that part feels goot at first, a little like being hugged, but they always do it harder until you can't help it, and you make funny squeaks because it feels like your insides are popping."