Jeff Zentner

I love pretty much everything Jeff Zentner writes. I'm a Texan, so we are next-door southerners, or at least I was raised very southern with my family. I also really connected to the southern lit classes I took as an English major at Baylor University. Zentner's characters and the place they reside in feel like the south; he deals with the struggle to live in a geographic areas that has so much paradox surrounding it.

Colton marries a huge megastar and has a hit on the charts when his best friend Duane dies in a mass shooting. Drunk and poorly performing, Colton gives his opinion on guns. Needless to say, it doesn't go over well. People do not like being criticized for owning guns and will vehemently (maybe even violently) disagree with you. After everyone disavows Colton's comments and his wife sends him to rehab as her parting gift, Colton gets sober and moves home. The beginning of the novel has flashback chapters of Colton's life growing up in Venice (pronounced the southern way), mainly his life with his girlfriend Luann. He's meant to be a famous football player but finds music when Luann tells him to pick up that guitar his dad got him and play! Returning home a failure makes Colton face himself. He finds his best friend from high school, moves in with his mom, and discovers a fancy new restaurant in town. Surprisingly, it's owned by Luann. Colton really can't take care of himself. He has a deprecating humor and really doesn't lie. Even when embarrassed. His ex-wife tells him to get to rehab, and Luann tells him what he needs to do--as she did in high school. Eventually, he will have to make his own decisions and follow a path not dictated to him. Luann is a savior--she knows Colton and does what is needed. His ex-wife truly cares for him but can't sacrifice for true meaning in life; her popularity and career are more important.

Not being a fan of guns that are used in mass shootings or living in fear thinking guns will make me safe, I found the gun conundrum well done. Colton cannot support guns after Duane is killed and the gun culture goes after him. I think my favorite scene is when he confronts the gun protestors. Zentner humanized everyone, showing the different viewpoints caused by life experiences. Once again, Colton's ability to offer himself up honestly made me really like this character immensely.

Here's a 38-year old man who feels that life has passed him by even though everyone says that he's still young. Colton finds that his creative abilities can expand to encompass some many forms of art and home doesn't mean failure. Sometimes it can mean a true home. What a lovely book to spend the weekend with!… (mere)

So my friends recommended this book to me. At first I was a little McMad about reading it, because it's about Pentecostal Christianity and abusive fathers, both subjects that hit a little close to home for me. And it's a slow burn, so it took me a while to get through it. Lydia and Dill both come off a little annoying at the start, but Travis struck me as the type of kid I went to high school with, so his character at least felt familiar. Dill and Travis both have unstable family lives and darkness within them, balanced out by Lydia's near-perfect existence. But I found the internal struggle the characters go through to be compelling. Much of the story is about the weight of parental and social pressure for the small-town working class. All three characters deal with questions of familial responsibility, college, and charting a path to adulthood, even if it goes against parents' expectations. All in all it's a sad but hopeful read.… (mere)

I won a copy of this book from a giveaway on LibraryThing in exchange for a review. The author did a fabulous job describing the MC's insecurities and experiences. That part of the story felt realistic. For the most part, I liked the writing style. It was easy to read.
There was something about the dialogue at times that threw me off. I'm not entirely sure what it was. Likewise, Vi and Alex's characters felt a little flat to me. As we neared the end, I found the storytelling more list-like. At that point, we were checking off items from a list. Those items didn't necessarily need to be added. It didn't add any final character development or a last "hurrah" of fun between friends. But hey I still liked it.… (mere)