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This title in other editions

The Wishbones

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The Wishbones Cover

ISBN13: 9780425163146
ISBN10: 0425163148
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Everything is going pretty well for Dave Raymond. He's 31, but he still feels young. He's playing guitar with the Wishbones, a New Jersey wedding band, and while it isn't exactly the Big Time, it is music. He has a roof over his head...well, it's his parents' roof, but they don't hassle him much. Life isn't perfect. But it isn't bad. Not bad at all. But then he has to blow it all by proposing to his girlfriend.

Review:

"What makes this late coming-of-age novel original and fresh is the arch, incisive humor and pop-music riffs that Perrotta adds to an old story....Even the antagonisms are gentle and funny..." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"The Wishbones is a hybrid of the rhymed and the unplanned — a small-scale comedy of accommodation and unresolution that's full of loopiness and warmth. Like Bad Haircut, Perrotta's 1994 collection of stories, it's a minor work but a major pleasure." Ray Sawhill, Salon.com

Review:

"A funny and charming first novel....Pure pleasure." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"By all reasonable standards, Dave Raymond and his companions should qualify as first-class losers....That they instead constitute a vastly appealing cast of characters whose doings are a source of unalloyed reading pleasure is something of a miracle..." Gary Krist, The New York Times Book Review

Review:

"Just like a good rock 'n' roll song, Perrotta's first novel...is straight-ahead, unpretentious entertainment....Like Nick Hornsby's High Fidelity, The Wishbones is a smart, very funny look at one man's ambivalence toward adulthood and commitment..." Booklist

Synopsis:

A laugh-out-loud confessional of a novel about people who may be too old to rock 'n' roll, but who can't imagine stopping, "The Wishbones" is "unalloyed reading pleasure" ("The New York Times Book Review").
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About the Author

Tom Perotta is a graduate of Yale and teaches writing at Harvard. In addition to The Wishbones, he is the author of Election and Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies. He lives in Massachusetts.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Robert Loy, December 27, 2009 (view all comments by Robert Loy)
've enjoyed every Tom Perrotta book I've ever read, and it's a testament to how good a writer he is that not a lot happens in his books and still you keep turning the pages because he makes you care about his characters. In "The Wishbones" 31-year old Tom Raymond is still living with his parents, still playing in a band that's going nowhere except to the Holiday Inn for another wedding reception, still delaying growing up. One night he proposes to his long-time girlfriend almost by accident and immediately starts trying to sabotage it when she accepts. To me, this boook had a lot to say about love, growing up and music's ability to keep you young. My favorite scene in the book didn't involve the main characters but Buzzy, the happily-married, possibly-alcoholic bass player. Realizing he's never going to make it as a rock star but unwilling to completely relinquish those fantasies he tosses a 13-inch television out of his bedroom window, in a suburban homage to Keith Moon et al's hotel escapades.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780425163146
Author:
Perrotta, Tom
Publisher:
Berkley Publishing Group
Author:
Perotta, Tom
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Humorous
Subject:
New jersey
Subject:
Musical fiction.
Subject:
Marriage proposals
Subject:
Rock groups
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
1998
Edition Description:
Mass Market
Publication Date:
April 1998
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
from 12
Language:
English
Pages:
304
Dimensions:
8.08x5.16x.86 in. .54 lbs.
Age Level:
from 18
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Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

The Wishbones Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$1.95 In Stock
Product details 304 pages Berkley Publishing Group - English 9780425163146 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "What makes this late coming-of-age novel original and fresh is the arch, incisive humor and pop-music riffs that Perrotta adds to an old story....Even the antagonisms are gentle and funny..." Publishers Weekly
"Review" by , "The Wishbones is a hybrid of the rhymed and the unplanned — a small-scale comedy of accommodation and unresolution that's full of loopiness and warmth. Like Bad Haircut, Perrotta's 1994 collection of stories, it's a minor work but a major pleasure."
"Review" by , "A funny and charming first novel....Pure pleasure."
"Review" by , "By all reasonable standards, Dave Raymond and his companions should qualify as first-class losers....That they instead constitute a vastly appealing cast of characters whose doings are a source of unalloyed reading pleasure is something of a miracle..."
"Review" by , "Just like a good rock 'n' roll song, Perrotta's first novel...is straight-ahead, unpretentious entertainment....Like Nick Hornsby's High Fidelity, The Wishbones is a smart, very funny look at one man's ambivalence toward adulthood and commitment..."
"Synopsis" by , A laugh-out-loud confessional of a novel about people who may be too old to rock 'n' roll, but who can't imagine stopping, "The Wishbones" is "unalloyed reading pleasure" ("The New York Times Book Review").
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