I get it. Schrader writes men pushed to the outside and who are willing to do what is necessary. I wish this one would have been structured differently. Good but not great. First Reformed, better.
This is an evocative, touching book. I grew up in Tennessee just a ways down the road from the hard-luck main character, Skid, offset by just a few years. Randy O’Brien knows the 70s in the South – what’s going on, the shifting attitudes, politics, being poor, and what it’s like to be a kid who’s good at some things but not others. Through the tumult of young love, misfortune and downright unfairness, Skid struggles to do the right thing – sometimes succeeding and sometimes not – while wrestling with the wild emotion of youth and self-discovery. It all builds to a climax that breaks your heart even as it holds out a bit of hope. I recommend it.
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