FRANK

A troubled teen embarks on a life-changing road trip with his eccentric uncle in Gibbs’ debut coming-of-age novel.

Every year, Brogan Camden receives a birthday card from Frank, a paternal uncle he’s never seen or spoken to. Days before Brogan’s 18th birthday in 1989, Frank shows up at Brogan’s New Jersey home, offering to take his nephew on a trip over the Thanksgiving weekend. The teenager’s parents aren’t happy about the idea, as the family disdains Frank as a con artist and a gambler, among other things. He sounds like trouble, but that may be just what Brogan wants: He’s too smart for his Catholic prep school and haunted by his best friend’s suicide. Frank takes Brogan south to Florida, stopping in at such places as a casino and a strip club, providing an “education” on alcohol, fighting, and other dubious pursuits. The two later connect with Frank’s enigmatic associate Bogota, a beefy, intimidating man who wears feminine make-up. The author populates his story with a multilayered cast: Brogan is a loner at school whose father’s alcoholism nearly destroyed his family. Both the handlebar-mustachioed Frank and the much more compassionate Bogota are steeped in mystery, evading most of Brogan’s personal questions. The narrative delves into some dark territory as Frank pulls his young nephew into unsavory situations with seedy individuals. But the three travelers are wholly engaging characters, and Frank’s and Bogota’s gleefully baffling responses and expressions (“The modern rest stop is a vaudeville theater. A carnival of pain. There are no fixed bridges, Brogan. Remember that. There are no dams”) are diverting. Frank’s birthday cards throughout the years are a particular highlight; they’re full of advice on forging a life path as well as thoughts on sex that are a bit too frank for an adolescent boy.

A fascinating character-driven journey of bonding and introspection.