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THE WISHBONES by Tom Perrotta

THE WISHBONES

by Tom Perrotta

Pub Date: May 1st, 1997
ISBN: 0-399-14267-3
Publisher: Putnam

A funny and charming first novel from the author of a highly acclaimed collection of linked short stories, Bad Haircut (1994). Like its predecessor, Perrotta's agreeably manic chronicle of prolonged adolescence is set in suburban New Jersey. It covers a chaotic six months (MaySeptember 1994) in the life of Dave Raymond, who's 31 and still lives with his parents, works as a freelance driver for a courier service, plays guitar for a local band (the title group), and enjoys a more-or-less committed relationship with Julie Muller, the girl he's been ``with'' since their high school days. When Dave impulsively proposes marriage and Julie eagerly accepts, the looming specters of stability and fidelity severely test Dave's fatigued mettle—as he and his fellow Wishbones endure a series of bittersweet misadventures recounted with irresistible tongue-in-cheek deadpan brio. The novel is brimming with sharply observed secondary characters, including bandmates Buzzy (a happily married alcoholic), Stan (ever morosely unlucky in love), and Ian (who's writing a musical about the assassination of JFK); a former doper turned priest; and Gretchen, the girl with whom Dave happily dallies even as his wedding day draws nearer. Perrotta offers such beguiling set pieces as a wedding at which an elderly band singer dies onstage; a hilariously described poetry reading (where Gretchen performs, and which features ``a philosophical dialogue between Jack Kerouac and Charles Manson. . . [that] turned out to be an excuse to talk really fast and say the word `man' a lot''); and the Wishbones's disastrous gig playing for a group of neo-Nazi survivalist skinheads. Nor does the climactic wedding itself disappoint: It's a wonderfully cacophonous celebration of life during which the tamed Dave ``already. . . feels himself being transformed into a historical figure, frozen into anecdote by his unborn children and grandchildren.'' Pure pleasure. And it'll make a terrific movie.