Still can't see nothin' comin'

the long version

"Daniel Grey Marshall's literary debut traces a journey from innocence to experience, from childhood through the crushing rebirth of adolescence into an early yet hard-won adulthood. At its center is Jim, a Midwestern teen who finds a home with friends just as his family is disappointing him; who finds distraction and solace and escape in a maelstrom of cheap drugs and alcohol; who discovers beauty through the eyes of a girl named Leslie, his extraordinary friend and lover. A succession of desperate events - from suicide to armed robbery - conspires to destroy the world Jim has carved out with his friends; his own loss of control is precipitous, heartrending, and inevitable. Yet throughout the novel - and even to its searing final scenes - Jim's intensely human voice lends the story a bright and luminous soul."--BOOK JACKET.