The book starts off great, with a little bit of humour and sarcasm on the first story, with a very good progression and implications.
The dry humour and sarcasm is definitely a GREAT trait of this book, Kevin Revolinski should get the award for the most sarcastic writer in the planet. It’s just flawless, and the way it makes you want to read the story while listening some jazz on the background is something very nice. You don’t get in this day and age, many writers with this “non-challans“, better yet, totally uninterested vibe of narrative. It’s very cool, and the fact that Kevin Revolinski could keep the reading experience light and amusing, slightly gripping, is impressive.
The first story, Stealing Away, is about two youngsters that run away from their houses, Bony and Clyde* style, and try to survive by making petty crimes. What’s interesting about this story is that it shows a LOT of the reality of most americans live and it’s not passed on the media. They both lived under financially struggling parents, with low education, one of them lived with a single parent after a “run-for-it” from the house, and both apparently didn’t have much of an education. So, here we have two youngsters, distressed by lack of money, and leaving a track of crimes on their wake while naively hanging to the certainty that everything will be fine.
There’s so much skill in the writings of Kevin that one can only notice if paid very close attention, like when he says: “There was anger, sure, but it faltered like a fluorescent bulb flickering as it couldn’t hold the light. I saw anxiety and fear in the darkness between”, I mean, HOLY MONOPOLY, THAT, is something that takes a lot to get right. Breath-taking! Stealing away, the short story, is very emotional on the sense of family and the despair of slowly losing those who you love, or growing up to realize that they aren’t the heroes, you thought they were, in a sense, yet, in the end, realizing that you should’ve listened to them, because life isn’t as easy as they thought it would be
The diversity and reach of these stories are amazing both in wide as in depth. Stories about bullies and dealing with them, the power of preparedness, the cost of silly mistakes and harshness and the power of regret, all of it told in a cool, dark, straight-up and almost lyrical style of this amazing writer that is Kevin Revolinski.
