Publisher's Synopsis
"The All-American Boy" is a suspenseful and heartbreakingly humorous novel which, in the tradition of the classic "The Catcher in the Rye", presents a remarkably moving coming of age story. Taking place during one critical day at an unnamed American university, it is an exceptionally funny, exciting, and fast-moving narrative told in the desperate and comic voice of a deeply troubled 20 year old student who is the star of the school's winning soccer team and the campus' most admired and popular hero. Staunchly determined to avoid any self-knowledge and remain oblivious to all of his serious problems, he is known by everyone as 'Number Nine', or 'Niner' because it's the number on his soccer jersey that he always wears. Throughout the story it seems unlikely that the reader will learn his real name as Number Nine hopelessly struggles to find his true self-identity. A supremely handsome womanizer, Niner briskly tells his own story with a strange bitterness and cynicism that is very colorfully expressed in a hilariously clueless and sharply defiant prose. His broken way of describing everything and everybody in his world is guaranteed to make the reader laugh with almost every sentence while struggling not to cry when they gradually realize Niner's nearly unbearable deeply hidden pain. Beginning as just another typically mundane and uneventful academic day, "The All-American Boy" very quickly transforms into a fascinating mystery and a fast-paced suspenseful struggle as Niner is suddenly confronted by a rapidly collapsing personal world. With the passing of every hour, he feels more and more desperate and totally trapped by a doom which seems impossible to escape - a devastating fate which is threatening to destroy his entire life. Niner's story embraces all of the intensely problematic issues of young adulthood - drug addiction, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, suicide, exploitive sex, romantic confusion, homosexuality, promiscuity, sexual assault, and how genuine love is so threatening and confusing and incomprehensible. Addressed by the novel in a very raw and sometimes shocking and unapologetic manner, these sensational topics also are shown a tender sympathy and a constantly deeply humorous twist of naivety and laugh-out-loud humor. It is a novel that will touch the reader so deeply that it will remain with them for the rest of their lives and change their thinking and their view of the world. The author, MICHAEL JOHN SULLIVAN, is the celebrated and highly praised recipient of several awards and rave reviews for his bestselling books which have appeared in the New York Times and most of the other major American newspapers, magazines, and literary journals. Two of Sullivan's non-fiction works were the international blockbuster, "Affairs of State', and the acclaimed biography, "A Fatal Passion", which established him as a top-level Random House author. HIs other highly regarded novels are "Game of Angels", "The Murder Score", "Coming Attractions", and "Near the Water's Edge" which Sullivan adapted into a three act stage play. A resident of California and British Columbia, he travels extensively and is interested in a great variety of subjects.
