PIPELINER

A young aspiring rock guitarist falls for a girl and seriously contemplates his future in Hartje’s early-1990s coming-of-age novel.

High school junior and Idaho resident Jason Krabb dreams of making it big in a rock band—practicing guitar chords takes precedence over studying. Things take an unexpected turn for the 17-year-old when he runs into Allen Heber at a party in the woods. Hot-tempered Allen was kicked out of Jason’s high school in his freshman year; now he’s a laid-back guy on a pipeline crew. Jason begins to think that being a pipeliner might be preferable to sticking around for his senior year. Around the same time, the perpetually horny teen meets a girl named Betsy, who is Allen’s girlfriend’s younger sister. She’s from a rival high school, and her family isn’t as well off as “rich kid” Jason’s. Jason becomes enamored with Betsy, and, while he still aims to be a famous guitarist, he wonders if maybe this girl and a pipeliner’s lifestyle await him on his path forward. Hartje ably captures 1993 Americana, reveling in music and mixtapes. The author’s straightforward prose describes such recognizable moments of adolescence as a virgin’s awkwardness in sexual situations (“It felt ridiculous to be doing this and he couldn’t believe it was happening”) and peer pressure regarding drug use. But what truly stands out is a series of entertaining parallels: Jason’s current bandmates, for example, include his best friend, Doug Stills, on drums as well as “know-it-all” bassist Marty Bachmann, whom Jason doesn’t even like. Similarly, shiftless Jason is the veritable opposite of his older, Princeton-attending brother Robert; Betsy provides a similar contrast to Robert’s Mormon girlfriend, Mindy Smith. Unfortunately, Jason doesn’t evolve as much as readers may hope—he’s a typically self-absorbed teenager with a touch of angst who forgoes most opportunities to mature.

A somewhat inert protagonist headlines this resonant depiction of late-20th-century America.