When the Coin is in the Air
Description
Like most boys, Jason Blake wants to please his father and older brother. But this erratic father and hyper-competitive brother challenge beyond the norm. To find his way, Jason tries on different roles: schoolyard bully, football player, actor, student. At 20, Jason escapes his Midwest home and seeks independence and adventure: first to Cape Cod, later in Europe. Each adventure takes Jason farther from his father and brother. Each brings him closer to finding himself. When he returns home, the world as he knew it explodes and Jason risks all to protect his mother from his violent father. The dramatic and unforgettable course of events changes this family forever. And they promise to change the reader too.
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About the Author
Reviews
"It is a rare coming-of-age-novel that strikes an elegiac tone--the trembling anticipation of youth, a decidedly modern hero's journey, in combination with a grief-struck plunge into conscience--but John Young pulls it off. This novel, like its main character, makes its way from early promise to settled accomplishment, from a staggering opening to a quiet self- acceptance that seems wholly earned--and leaves a reader grateful."
-- James Carroll, National Book Award Winner and Author of The Cloister
"An abusive father keeps his son--and the reader--in suspense in When The Coin Is in The Air, a well-told coming-of-age tale."
--Dan Wakefield, author of Going All The Way and New York in the Fifties.
In John Young's wise and moving novel, a young man is forced to navigate the difficult choices of early adulthood while protecting his own life and his mother's from a violent, abusive father. Reminiscent of the novels of Pat Conroy, When the Coin Is In the Air explores the complexities of the pull between duty and self-determination, tempered by love.
--Susan Neville, author of The Invention of Flight and In the House of Blue Lights.
