Three words: cynical, comic, profane.Vernon is 15 years old in Martirio the bar-b-que capital of Texas. Socially and sexually confused, life isn't so great for him; his dad is missing and presumed dead, his mother is absorbed with getting a new refrigerator and hanging with her obnoxious friends and has little time for Vernon. The novel opens a couple of days after a Columbine-type massacre. Vernon, though innocent, is accused of taking part in it. He's in deep shit, shit being a key theme of this novel.
Pierre holds a dim view of American society: the characters are obese, fried chicken eating, narrow minded and opportunistic. The crime is a sensational one and draws the inevitable media circus. Journalistic stereotype, Lally Ledesma, represents all that is wrong with mass media today. He's exploitative and will stop at nothing to get the story he wants including seducing Vernon's mother and her friend.
Vernon is convinced that others will believe in his innocence but they are intent on locking him up and throwing away the key. He decides to run to Mexico but makes some bad errors in judgement and ends up on death row.
The book has been compared toThe Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn.
It reminded me of Russell Banks' Rule of the Bone although Banks is a much better writer. It won the Booker in 2003 but perhaps this had more to do with the judges' opinion of American society than with the merits of the book. However, it entertains and Vernon sure is an engaging little fuck.
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