Baroque-A-Nova

By Kevin Chong

Book Overview

"An excellent first novel. Chong captures teen angst with white-hot, dead-on language. . . . Sensitive, wry observations remind the reader of Holden Caulfield in J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye." (The Montreal Gazette) During the week following the death of his long-absent famous folksinger mother, Saul St. Pierre must contend with the TV crews, fans, and assorted oddballs who flood the suburb where he lives, even as he struggles to understand his mother's reasons for taking her own life-and for abandoning him years before. It doesn't help matters that his stepmother, Jana, the only reliable adult he's ever known, is dating a cop who wants to marry her. And he and his friend Navi are suspended from school for staging a demonstration against censorship. Then there is the arrival of the two young women from New York, inspired by the St. Pierres' nostalgia boom, who come to worship at the feet of Saul's father, an alcohol-guzzling musical has-been. But this is no mere tale of motherless youth, because Kevin Chong eschews the melodramatic and familiar to create an inspired-and sometimes absurd-coming-of-age story that embraces the unexpected poetry of tacky pop culture and marginal celebrity. And whether Baroque-a-Nova is read as a "witty postmodern farce" (The Globe and Mail) or a "deftly shaped, deceptively simple story about a boy poised on the threshold of manhood" (The Vancouver Sun), it is, to its very core, about love, forgiveness, and the search for truth and beauty in our junked-up lives

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399148256
• ISBN13: 9780399148255
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

I love this book like it was the brother I never had.

I never had a brother so this book was perfect for me, because it was about a young, intrepid young man in high school with a decent libido and a wise-cracking mouth, and I just thought it was so darn funny and warm-hearted and I can't say enough good things about it.I think we can expect great things from Chong, and this book is certainly worth the credit card debt. It's one of those books where you just wish there was some more Chong to read right after. I want more Chong!! More Chong books!!

Chong is a God

This may be the best book I've ever read. I laughed so hard I think I cracked my spine. Everyone should read this book, and anyone who doesn't like it should be banned for life from all water slides.Chong for President!

Fun, Fast Ride, Filled with Sharp Writing

.... I was checking out new titles--usually I build up a list of new titles I want and send an order to an online store--but I was absolutely taken with Baroque-a-nova. I bought it there, full price, took it home and read it that night.Kevin Chong has a smart engaging voice. He can throw down a sentence so clean you hardly are aware that you are reading a book. He knows how to pick the exact right details so the novel beautifully opens the world of its 18-year old narrator. If you're looking for a fun, smartly humourous book to read--something like Vancouveer meets Houlden Caulfield meets 1990s multicultural communities--give this one a spin. I don't think you're regret it.....