Synopses & Reviews
Skateboarder, punk rocker, kitchen slave, and general ne'er-do-well with a slightly tarnished heart of gold, When Thinfinger tries mightily to survive a seemingly endless round of troubles in small-town Florida. After getting fired from his job at the Barbie-Q, he lands a gig at the hippest pizza joint in town, where he soon becomes the leader of a disheveled crew. He's the singer for a mediocre rock band, but his bandmates only let him sing their name, Wormdevil, to all the songs. His girlfriend dreams that he murders her and decorates their apartment with the skulls of small animals. And his best friend enlists him in his plan to land his photo in
Thrasher by skating a bowl of poisonous snakes.
Navigating a life littered with freaks and miscreants, When crosses a line, and things suddenly become hotter than his pizza oven. Jeff Parker's laugh-out-loud funny first novel follows a contemporary Everyguy through the strange twists of a woefully complicated life.
Review
"Ovenman is a welcome addition to the literature of the lovably hapless by a young writer with talent to burn." George Saunders, author of Pastoralia and In Persuasion Nation
Review
"This novel really cooks. Read it tonight." Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Corpus Christi: Stories
Review
"This novel really cooks. Read it tonight." Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Corpus Christi: Stories
Synopsis
Skateboarder, restaurant worker, and punk rocker wannabe, the antihero of Jeff Parker's uproariously funny debut novel adds a new twist to the classic coming-of-age story. When Thinfinger, a ne'er-do-well with a slightly tarnished heart of gold, relies on Post-It notes to help him make sense of the chaos and momentum of his life: a girlfriend who dreams he murders her, a long lost Biodad who writes letters filled with lies, a televised war that is over before it has even begun, and a robbery he can't remember committing.
Synopsis
This debut novel follows When Thinfinger--skateboarder, kitchen worker extraordinaire, and ne'er-do-well with a slightly tarnished heart of gold--and the trail of Post-It notes he relies on to make sense of his world. When a robbery occurs at his beloved pizza parlor, things begin to heat up for Ovenman.
About the Author
Jeff Parkers fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications, including Tin House, Ploughshares, Hobart, and Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006. For more than a decade he worked in the kitchens of Italian, Mexican, seafood, pizza, fast food, and bar-b-q restaurants. Currently, he teaches creative writing and hypermedia at Eastern Michigan University and is program director of the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia program. He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and Toronto, Canada.