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    Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way: A Novel
    Ebook281 pages3 hours

    Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way: A Novel

    By Bryan Charles

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    An engaging, often hilarious coming-of-age novel of uncertainty and discovery oozing with early 90s nostalgia. 

    “Funny and unpredictable...(Charles) proves impressively adept at capturing the inchoate ache of adolescent longing.”
       — Washington Post

    It’s 1992, and America is caught in the grip of major Angst. In Washington, D.C., George H. W. Bush is rattling the mother of all sabres at Saddam Hussein. In Seattle, Curt Kobain is heady with the smell of teen spirit. And in Kalamazoo, MI, Vim Sweeney is trying to put off adulthood and all that comes with it (whatever that is) as long as he can. He’s already juggling guitars, girls, and graduation—and a biological father who Wants To Be Involved. And he still can’t convince his friends why local schoolboy hero Derek Jeter is bound for obscurity. How can he possibly handle the future when he can’t even cope with right now?

    Grab Onto Me Tightly As If I Knew the Way traces Vim’s stumble toward adulthood as he comes to terms with his parents, balances friendships and infatuation with varying levels of success, and accepts that the things he thought would last forever probably won’t. Big-hearted and laugh-out-loud funny, it introduces an exciting and imaginative new writer who deftly captures the follies, foibles, and fun of adolescence for readers of every age.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 17, 2011
    ISBN9780062102164
    Unavailable
    Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way: A Novel
    Author

    Bryan Charles

    Bryan Charles is the author of the memoir There's a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From, and Wowee Zowee, a book about Pavement written for the 33 1/3 series. 

    Read more from Bryan Charles

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    Reviews for Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way

    3.5/5

    36 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Fantastic example of what a coming-of-age novel can be. Avoids sentimentality and really moves forward thanks to Charles's ability to write really profound, wonderful sentences. Essentially the tale of a kid graduating HS in the early 90s. But it takes place in Michigan, so it has this great feeling of uniqueness. I never felt like Charles was writing a cliched story. Amazing how that can be accomplished with a setup that has been done to death.
    • 4/5
      An engaging novel that fluctuates between brilliant, touching, confusing, offensive, and pretentious. Very well written and interesting take on the well used theme of "entering the real world. (Although I do find the underground punk music scene portions of the book to be a bit annoying.)Gets a small bonus point for being set in my home state of Michigan.
    • 3/5
      I read this in an afternoon not long after it's release. The draw for me was that it was set in Kalamazoo, where I live, written by a guy around my age. To me it read as non fiction due to how well he pegged our town. I don't rightly know if others would get the book as well if they didn't know the area, but anyone from the Kalamazoo area would love it!
    • 5/5
      As if he read my senior year of high school and wrote it down in lyrical, simple prose. Required reading for any person who grew up in Kalamazoo or southwest Michigan. Or any one who ever grew up. Really excellent voice. I thought he was me.