In San Diego, where he has fled to live with his remarried mother after a disastrous junior year, Steve is a certified "stoner," an alienated pot-smoker and class-cutter. In Houston, straight-A high school student Steve York's biggest problems were getting along with his famous astronaut father and asking out the girl of his dreams - a fellow member of a group of intellectual nonconformists called the Grace Order of Dadaists (G.O.D.). Ages 12-up.Given an assignment to write a 100-page paper in order to graduate, 18-year-old Steve York retells his high school career - from delirious fun with a group of happy misfits to a decline into bitterness and alienation, and a hopeful recovery. Readers will likely enjoy the quick pace of Steve's journal-style flashbacks on a deeper level, they will be moved by his emotional stumbles and impressed by his growing maturity. The dialogue is fresh and Steve's intelligent banter and introspective musings never sound wiser than his years. The sharp descriptions of cliques, clubs and annoying authority figures will strike a familiar chord. Thomas, a former high school teacher, nails his setting with dead-on accuracy. His last chance for academic redemption lies in writing a 100-page paper for his new guidance counselor, a narrative that becomes the framework for this novel.
But Dub's eventual betrayal causes Steve to flee his father's home and take a dive from scholar to stoner. Life with ""the astronaut"" (as Steve insists on calling him) is okay for a while as Steve juggles straight-As with a part-time job and hangs out with a wise-cracking crew of artsy, nonconformist cronies, one of whom, Dub, becomes his first love. When his parents divorce just before he begins high school, Steve blames his father for the family's break-up, even though he doesn't know all the facts. Steve York has always lived in the long shadow cast by his too-perfect astronaut father.
In his first novel Thomas lays bare the pain, awkwardness and humor at the heart of one teenager's search for identity.
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