Whiskey Boys: And Other Meditations from the Abyss at the End of Youth [Paperback]

Winner of the 2021 Monadnock Essay Collection PrizeWhiskey Boys: And Other Meditations from the Abyss at the End of Youth is a lively collection of literary essays about bars, booze, and traveling the American West. The book follows the author from small-town Illinois to the West Coast after he abandons a legal career to pursue writing. Much of the narrative concerns growing up and whats gained and lost with maturity, while considering the challenges of living as a writer in a culture thats skeptical of the creative arts. Other threads include travel, wanderlust, the psychological effect of place, and mortality.Clever and witty, but ultimately heartfelt and serious, too. Because a great bar story is one thing, but a bar story that connects with art, literature, and the timeless concerns of the human condition is another thing entirely. Whiskey Boys is beautifully written, a joyous, heartbreaking, and in the end serious book. Warning: you will want to read these seventeen essays straight, as though they were shots lined up on the bar waiting to be slammed. But whatever your pace and tolerance, Whiskey Boys, like a fine bourbon, should be savored. US