Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison Book Review
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison Book Review
The lowdown from Goodreads
Publication Date April 3rd, 2018
For Mike Muñoz, a young Chicano living in Washington State, life has been a whole lot of waiting for something to happen. Not too many years out of high school and still doing menial work—and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew—he knows that he’s got to be the one to shake things up if he’s ever going to change his life. But how?
In this funny, angry, touching, and ultimately deeply inspiring novel, bestselling author Jonathan Evison takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young man on a journey to discover himself, a search to find the secret to achieving the American dream of happiness and prosperity. That’s the birthright for all Americans, isn’t it? If so, then what is Mike Muñoz’s problem? Though he tries time and again to get his foot on the first rung of that ladder to success, he can’t seem to get a break. But then things start to change for Mike, and after a raucous, jarring, and challenging trip, he finds he can finally see the future and his place in it. And it’s looking really good.
Lawn Boy is an important, entertaining, and completely winning novel about social class distinctions, about overcoming cultural discrimination, and about standing up for oneself.
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison Book Review
This is the coming of age story of Mike Munez, a boy living in poverty in California with his mother and handicapped older brother. Mike is forced to be the man of the house if there is a house at all after Mike’s father bails on the family. Mike has dreams! He is determined to break the chains binding him to this cycle of poverty and minimum wage jobs. His true love of landscaping is a dream he has refused to give up on. This amazingly well-written book begs the questions: Are we products of our environment? Are we predestined to repeat our family cycle of poverty, unsavory zip codes and bad decisions? Or can we rise above it all to achieve our dreams?
THE VERDICT
When I say I LOVED this book, I am really screaming I LOVEDDDD THIS BOOK!! Jonathan Evison is absolutely talented, insightful and hilarious. I’m about to cry, then just like that, I am laughing. Pure genius!
If you love stories about rising above the hard times, the seemingly impossible, then you will love this one. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Special thanks to Algonquin Books for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.
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About the Author: Jonathon Evison
Jonathan Evison is an American writer best known for his debut novel All About Lulu published in 2008, which won critical acclaim, including the Washington State Book Award. In 2009, Evison was awarded a Richard Buckley Fellowship from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. A second novel, West of Here, will be released in February 2011 from Algonquin. Editor Chuck Adams (Water for Elephants, A Reliable Wife, An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers Homes in New England) has called West of Here the best novel he’s worked on in over four decades of publishing.
In his teens, Evison was the founding member and frontman of the Seattle punk band March of Crimes, which included future members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
Born in San Jose, California, he now lives on an island in Western Washington.
