by James Kaplan
First published 1999
Will stands in his driveway in suburban New Jersey, watching his neighbor Joel cruise by in a battered 1974 Chevy. The two men have been friends since second grade, but their lives have taken drastically different paths. Will sells cardboard, pays his mortgage, and comes home to his wife and children each night. Joel still lives with his mother, works at a sandwich shop, and spends his evenings driving the empty streets with a bottle of whiskey. Each man looks at the other with pity. Will sees Joel as a failure who never grew up. Joel sees Will as trapped in a suffocating routine. Their twenty-fifth high school reunion approaches in the fall of 1999, and neither expects much from the evening. But the reunion will force both men to confront truths they have avoided for decades. One will face mortality while the other discovers what it means to truly live.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: New Jersey, Verona
Period: 1999
352 pages · Paperback · Grove Press