LawnboyLawnboy

The adventure of 17-year-old Evan's life begins with mowing a neighbor's lawn, an ordinary chore that launches him into an extraordinary world of adult desire, confusion, and betrayal. Rejected by his parents, struggling to make contact with a brother he barely knows, he learns the nature of exile in the urban, artificial world of South Florida -- a landscape that is, like this young man's imagination, both lush and troubling Lawnboy is a book about the possibility of finding love, self, and sustainable bonds in a world of broken relationships and decaying motels -- life as a place of failed housing developments sinking back into the swamps. Evan's spirit and willingness to be educated by difficulty lead him towards an affirmation of possibility, even in the darkest of times. "Lawnboy is, quite simply, the real thing, a novel of mystery and great beauty. The appearance of a writer like Paul Lisicky -- a writer who deeply respects the complexities of love and desire, who can find tragedy and transcendence almost everywhere he looks -- is a rare event. I read this book increasingly slowly, dreading the moment when I would have no more of it to be read. Now that I've finished, all I can say is that I hope Paul Lisicky is hard at work on another one." -- Michael Cunningham