The Wonder Bread Summer
A Novel
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
“Picaresque, properly funny, unpredictable and altogether irrepressible.” —Nick Hornby, The Believer
Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and Mary Jane, delivers a darkly hilarious, heartbreaking coming-of-age novel with The Wonder Bread Summer.
In The Wonder Bread Summer, loosely based on Alice in Wonderland, 20-year-old Allie Dodgson has adventures that rival those Alice had down the rabbit hole. Or those of Weeds’ Nancy Botwin.
Allison is working at a dress shop to help pay for college. The dress shop turns out to be a front for drug dealers. And Allison ends up on the run—with a Wonder Bread bag full of cocaine.
With a hit man after her, Allison wants the help of her parents. But there’s a problem: Her mom took off when Allison was eight; her dad moves so often Allison that doesn’t even have his phone number….
Set in 1980s California, The Wonder Bread Summer is a wickedly funny and fresh caper that’s sure to please fans of Christopher Moore, Carl Hiaasen, and Marcy Dermansky.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Allie's obedient nature served her well through a turbulent childhood, but also led to trouble: her unsavory ex-boyfriend made off with her Berkeley scholarship money and she's about to be dropped from enrollment and evicted from her apartment. Her sleazy boss, Jonas, hasn't paid her in two months for her work at his dress shop, and when she discovers he's dealing cocaine out of the back of the shop, she gets an idea. No sooner does the book begin than Allie is on the run with a Wonder Bread bag full of stolen coke and a very angry Jonas on her heels. Trying to stay one step ahead of him and his heavy, Vice Versa, Allie goes to Los Angeles and gets help from an unlikely assortment of people new and old including a quadriplegic pornographer; '80s rocker Billy Idol; and Allie's erstwhile father. In trying to untangle the mess she's in, Allie might finally learn how to stand up for herself. Blau's (Drinking Closer to Home) madcap chase through 1980s L.A. is over-the-top, and Allie's trajectory is predictable, but the journey is too much fun to dwell on contrived plot points. A liberal dose of dark humor and an oddly heart-warming ending add to the twisted ride.
