Cherry: A novel

Reads like a modern Bukowski piece. The narrator is a total screw up and his choices make you want to just smack him across the head, but somehow the writing draws you in with continued interest. This book is like a coming of age story in reverse wherein the narrator never learns anything. The bad choices are planted as seeds and they just bloom with overgrowing terror. Despite the countless despicable actions and basic foolishness of the narrator, he is somehow likable because of the brutal and course honesty that is cataloged in this story. He doesn't blame his drug use or poor behavior on anyone, it just is. This is a drug book and a war book and somehow the time in Iraq, despite the death and maiming, seemed like the peaceful time. The real war was the internal war the narrator engages upon himself for just being a poor sap who foolishly wishes he could love but can only manage find it in the escape, the release that heroin and pills provide. He is connected with many people, including a long time girlfriend, but they are just the scenery, the backdrop to his miserable path through life. I couldn't put this down because it was so enthralling, it is nightmarish character study and reflection of the dirty underside of American culture. Well worth the read.

No plot & no ending. Not sure how this even got published.

Raw and open. Couldnt stop reading