Futureproof

by N. Frank Daniels

Book Overview

No past. No future. Only now.

Originally a self-publishing success launched on N. Frank Daniels's MySpace page, the novel Futureproof tells the story of Luke and his friends as they navigate Atlanta's subculture of delinquents. In short order, the seemingly harmless high from his first cigarette sends Luke on a downward spiral that ends only after years of self-abuse. It is an extreme cautionary tale told with sensitivity, ferocity, and grit...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061656836
• ISBN13: 9780061656835
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Tales of Wasted Youth Worth the Read

It's rare to find a self-publishing success story in this highly competitive day and age, and rarer still for that book to actually impress with its witty brilliance, but N. Frank Daniels' debut novel, "Futureproof", accomplishes both tasks handily. Originally posted on the authors' Myspace page, Daniels may be poised for mainstream success with this gritty, no holds barred modern and hip masterpiece that will appeal to the disaffected youth of America, as well as anybody who has ever been curious about the dark and seedy underbelly of the urban core, but afraid to venture there. "Futureproof" is the loosely autobiographical tale of Luke, a dreadlocked dropout from Atlanta, and the ragtag band of losers and castoffs that enter (and, often, just as rapidly exit) his life. Set in the 1990s, when Kurt Cobain was a god for the disenfranchised, the novel churns along at a fast clip, as Luke's penchant for experimentation evolves into addiction. He understands early that he is nothing more than a shadow on the fringes of society, and turns to drugs for escape. "We are the misunderstood," Daniels writes, in prose that crackles and pops, electrically vibrant and, at times, undeniably poetic, his descriptive narrative so vivid it often feels like the needle is dangling from your own arm. "We are the unclassified the oversimplified the target market the failing demographic. We are already dead, the untalented, the ugly, the wasted, the underused, making way for the new...We are the holes. The empty. The vacant. Carved out and hollow. Blankly staring. Echoes. Not ourselves. Not anyone." It is this sense of hopelessness, this lack of belonging, that drives Luke deeper and deeper into the lifestyle of hardcore drugs, until seemingly overnight he has transformed into a full-blown junkie willing to pull off increasingly brazen acts of desperation all for his next fix. Yet, Luke is an antihero, a 21st-century, rougher around the edges version of Holden Caulfield, and we never lose faith - or hope - in his desire for eventual redemption, because buried not so deeply beneath the surface we see Luke's humanity, his intelligence and love. We want him to rid himself of his demons, and when the story ends, it is without the neat and tidy resolution we'd hoped for, which is not to say it is without hope. The very act of Luke's survival is happy testament to the fact that he is not, after all, future-proof himself. Reviewed By Mark Petruska

Sympathy for the Devil

Daniel's has crafted a modern day "Go Ask Alice" with his brave look into the slow decay of a modern youth falling into the world of excessive drug use and the meaninglessness that seems to flow out of his every activity as a result. Make no mistake; this is no morality play. The author spares us the moral lesson of "see what can happen when you do this" and instead offers many bite sized nuggets of the sometimes amusing, sometimes disturbing decline of the narrator (Luke) and his companions into a morass of self indulgence fueled by addiction. The steps are gradual. There is no single climax. There is no great resolution. But there is a glimpse into a life forged in a troubled home life and a lack of a real sense of just what should come next. The writing style emulates the behavior and thoughts of Luke's narration. Sometimes seemingly disjointed vignettes ultimately tie together to give a mosaic view of his increasingly troubled life. Visceral descriptions of hard-core drug use are shown as growing ever more commonplace and what starts out as mostly innocent adolescent substance abuse at the occasional party turns into full-blown addiction. To anyone who grew up in the 90s, it is hard to not connect the beginnings of Luke's story. And it becomes all too easy to see how he could make his choices. While the steps on the path may be disturbing, it is hard to pull away. As the story progresses you can almost feel the numbness to the prior behavior creep over you as the newer debaucheries put the old ones to shame. A compelling read from a new artist with something to say. Give it a read.

A thoroughly absorbing journey into - what was for me - the unknown

Wayne kindly lent me his copy of Futureproof, by N. Frank Daniels (sorry Mr. Author, I know that's one less copy sold, but hey, if it's any consolation, this is one more positive review) and strongly recommended it. In fact, Wayne's recommendation is in the book itself in the testimonials. But, to be honest, I wasn't expecting to like it. Wayne told me about how it's about a young guy's journey into the world of drugs, and the other reviews talk about the great style of the book, and frankly, it didn't sound like it would be my thing. Having followed the straight-and-narrow, role-playing-game-playing, computer-nerd path through adolescence and early adulthood, I just didn't think I would relate. And this "style" didn't sound inviting either. But Wayne liked it, and that was good enough to get me started. As it turned out I did relate slightly. From Luke's experience of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and onward, I recognized a lot of cultural references that were contemporary with my own adolescence - even though I was on the other side of the world and on a nerd-trajectory to adulthood. As it really turned out, however, none of this mattered. I didn't need to relate to anything in Luke's life. With his supremely economical, first person, mini-scene chapters Daniels lead me deeper into the life of Luke, as he seems to slide down into ever more serious drug addiction, than I could possibly have imagined. Daniels sketches his story as if in a series of short, detailed stills in the margins of a notebook, then flicks it past us like a flicker-book. The effect left me at first wishing for more continuity between the chapters - more ongoing-story. But I was quickly hooked and I soon found that myself really needing to get to the next bite-sized chapter. Luke's piecemeal descent from a recognizable, ill adjusted teenager, into a hard drug user is so subtle it's unnerving. Disturbing because there's no one place or time where he makes a clear irretrievable leap into the abyss, so there's no easy way to point to one wrong turning or stupid decision and reassure myself: Well there's no way I would have done that. He brings us along so closely with him that its hard to say we wouldn't end up in the same dire situation. I was supposed to be working when I read this, but I kept telling myself I'd just read one more chapter, then I'd put it down and get to work, go to sleep, get on with my life - whatever essential activity I was currently forgoing to get another hit of Futureproof. Seriously, that's the way I came to think of it. Luke was drawing me into his mentality and it took me a while to realize that I was blurring the story with the act of reading it. And this is the highest commendation of Futureproof - forget "style", it has that most laudable of styles: the one where you can't remember later if there was any style to speak of. No, the highest commendation is that, having nothing in common at all with this character, I still came out identif

Recommended reading for Goths and Cutters

A coming of age story. A terrific role model for many of today's teenagers. At the time in life when he is enduring the brutalities of adolescence (he has wiry red hair and is half Jewish), Luke is suffering physical abuse from an alcoholic stepfather. He finds companionship in a cultish world of dysfuncionites in their own rite. An analoagous encounter with Timothy Leary, an emotionally estranged mother and reasonings with his deep seated Christianity foretell his fate and his relationships with women. But this kid is no simple survivor, he is determined to have a life. A true hero. A Napolean Dynamite. This is definitely some good writing and poingnant (often painful) reading. Classify this Young Adult but beware the censors. Magnificent raw narrative with well fashioned passages like, "She reaches down and places me at the portal to lost virginity." Brilliant.

Lost youths but not without compassion

Few writers have touched the world of our lost youth as deeply and with such well-crafted prose as Frank Daniels has done in "futureproof". And few writers have come back with as reassuring a message of how resilient those young people are. Dysfunctional families, lousy economies, misguided social policies take a toll but this is the story of how real enough kids make their way through very real problems and survive with dignity. Not the kind of dignity that struts across a TV interview stage but a quiet, decent way of responding that could, if anyone were to notice, form the basis for a lasting, overdue revolution in our values. It seems it is only the desperation of these times that leads such good kids to such extremes.