Carrigan approaches the millennium New Year craving climax and culmination. What he finds instead is constant anti-climax, and lack of definitional consequence for his failures and failings and genius. A conceptual heir to Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, this novel explores everything from Carrigan's past in the spelling bee as a contemptuous 12-year-old, to his father's death in Ireland years before, to the depth of mystery, violence, and secrecy that he returns to, both existentially, and literally, as he becomes 21, and then 22, without proper fanfare or notice."An instant classic. A major new talent has arrived." -Da Chen, New York Times best-selling author and former recipient of The Washington Post best book award"...The chapter written from Liam Keating's perspective is truly fantastic and worthy of its own book... In the space of one night, the fragility of John became clear. His façade had a spotlight shown on him, his character grows and you can see light in the cracks of his shell as the flesh beneath expands. A single night with his mother and a surprise interaction with his dead father is all it takes for his complexity to begin unraveling. ****" -Toast Toasted, Jason Brown, July 20, 2017Joseph M. Reynolds did his graduate work in Creative Fiction under the tutelage of acclaimed novelist and memoirist Da Chen. He teaches college in New England, and at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland during the summer term. As an undergraduate, he was a speechwriter and intern in the U.S. Senate office of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.