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Ventura and Winnetka by J. G. Bryan (2023, Trade Paperback)

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About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherSanta Monica Press

ISBN-101595801243

ISBN-139781595801241

eBay Product ID (ePID)20059014719

Product Key Features

Book TitleVentura and Winnetka

Number of Pages310 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2023

TopicComing of Age, Boys & Men, Social Themes / Friendship

GenreYoung Adult Fiction

AuthorJ. G. Bryan

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.7 in

Item Weight11.6 Oz

Item Length8 in

Item Width5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceYoung Adult Audience

LCCN2024-441128

ReviewsComing-of-age in the 1970s is wildly fun and equally fraught. In this stand-alone novel, Bryan revisits the group of suburban California teens he introduced in Ventura and Zelzah (2022) a few years further along their journeys to adulthood. High school senior Douglas Efron narrates in an energetic first-person voice. The car accident that killed Weddy, one member of his friend group, still hurts, but Marco, Weddy's cousin who attends high school with them, bring reminiscences of him and his love of fast cars. The novel's busy plot, which follows the young men through their senior year, doesn't so much surprise with twists as comfort with relatable elements: There's Douglas' gig with the school newspaper, the Woodrow Wilson Wire ; his awkwardness around first love Natalia even as he finds a more serious and complicated relationship with classmate Annie; and multiple minor capers. These adolescent adventures include a ragtag football game called the Turkey Bowl, desperate attempts to secure fake IDs to see an X-rated movie, and experimentation with drugs and alcohol. Bryan writes with enthusiasm and economy in a voice appropriate to his teen protagonist and packs the story with colorful minor characters on the fringes of the action, like Kenny the Killer, Annie's ex-boyfriend, and Ms. Pearlstein, faculty adviser for the school paper. An abundance of pop-culture references could also attract adult readers wanting a trip down Memory Lane. Breezy adolescent escapades in the Me Decade. (Fiction. 15-adult)-- Kirkus Reviews " Ventura and Winnetka is a dead-on evocation of what it was like to grow up in the Valley in the '70s. The stereo store scene, when the sales guy finally gets to the good speakers, had me laughing out loud. J.G. Bryan gets it right." --Lou Mathews, Pushcart Prize-winning author of L.A. Breakdown and Shaky Town "A rollicking coming-of-age novel . . . . lively, profane, ribald, touching, hilarious, and ultimately uplifting." --Historical Novel Society "It doesn't matter that I grew up on the East Coast in the mid-to-late 1970s. What J.G. Bryan captures so faithfully in terms of dialogue and social environments clearly illustrates that no matter where you came of age, 1970's culture was as shared and communal as a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Wine being passed around at a Dave Mason concert. Douglas, theprotagonist, and his motley crew of West Coast pals trip and cavort through cars, stereo shops, sex, record stores, and senior year with a desperate search for truth and meaning. With real life beginning to loom, the stakes grow higher as the ground begins to shift underneath them. Punk rock culture begins rearing its head as the "Me" decade approaches its close and Bryan manages to create a viscerally vivid universe that calls to mind American Graffiti , Dazed and Confused , and other great cinematic rite-of-passage films. The dialogue crackles with all of the warmth and authenticity of a record needle searching for that first groove at the head of the album. As the characters begin to come to grips with things like sickness and catastrophic car injuries, it's as if we get to experience their growth in real-time. I felt like I was riding with these guys, sharing the same laughs and obsessing over the same girls and music. All that said, it doesn't really matter what decade you grew up in. Ventura and Winnetka captures the essence of adolescence and teenage struggles, the drama, the camaraderie, and all of the fragile emotions that will always push this age group to the edge." --Chris Epting, co-author of Dave Mason's memoir Only You Know and I Know and author of It Happened Right Here: America's Pop Culture Landmarks, Coming-of-age in the 1970s is wildly fun and equally fraught. In this stand-alone novel, Bryan revisits the group of suburban California teens he introduced in Ventura and Zelzah (2022) a few years further along their journeys to adulthood. High school senior Douglas Efron narrates in an energetic first-person voice. The car accident that killed Weddy, one member of his friend group, still hurts, but Marco, Weddy's cousin who attends high school with them, bring reminiscences of him and his love of fast cars. The novel's busy plot, which follows the young men through their senior year, doesn't so much surprise with twists as comfort with relatable elements: There's Douglas' gig with the school newspaper, the Woodrow Wilson Wire ; his awkwardness around first love Natalia even as he finds a more serious and complicated relationship with classmate Annie; and multiple minor capers. These adolescent adventures include a ragtag football game called the Turkey Bowl, desperate attempts to secure fake IDs to see an X-rated movie, and experimentation with drugs and alcohol. Bryan writes with enthusiasm and economy in a voice appropriate to his teen protagonist and packs the story with colorful minor characters on the fringes of the action, like Kenny the Killer, Annie's ex-boyfriend, and Ms. Pearlstein, faculty adviser for the school paper. An abundance of pop-culture references could also attract adult readers wanting a trip down Memory Lane. Breezy adolescent escapades in the Me Decade. (Fiction. 15-adult)-- Kirkus Reviews " Ventura and Winnetka is a dead-on evocation of what it was like to grow up in the Valley in the '70s. The stereo store scene, when the sales guy finally gets to the good speakers, had me laughing out loud. J.G. Bryan gets it right." --Lou Mathews, Pushcart Prize-winning author of L.A. Breakdown and Shaky Town "It doesn't matter that I grew up on the East Coast in the mid-to-late 1970s. What J.G. Bryan captures so faithfully in terms of dialogue and social environments clearly illustrates that no matter where you came of age, 1970's culture was as shared and communal as a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Wine being passed around at a Dave Mason concert. Douglas, theprotagonist, and his motley crew of West Coast pals trip and cavort through cars, stereo shops, sex, record stores, and senior year with a desperate search for truth and meaning. With real life beginning to loom, the stakes grow higher as the ground begins to shift underneath them. Punk rock culture begins rearing its head as the "Me" decade approaches its close and Bryan manages to create a viscerally vivid universe that calls to mind American Graffiti , Dazed and Confused , and other great cinematic rite-of-passage films. The dialogue crackles with all of the warmth and authenticity of a record needle searching for that first groove at the head of the album. As the characters begin to come to grips with things like sickness and catastrophic car injuries, it's as if we get to experience their growth in real-time. I felt like I was riding with these guys, sharing the same laughs and obsessing over the same girls and music. All that said, it doesn't really matter what decade you grew up in. Ventura and Winnetka captures the essence of adolescence and teenage struggles, the drama, the camaraderie, and all of the fragile emotions that will always push this age group to the edge." --Chris Epting, co-author of Dave Mason's memoir Only You Know and I Know and author of It Happened Right Here: America's Pop Culture Landmarks, "Breezy adolescent escapades in the Me Decade. . . . Coming-of-age in the 1970s is wildly fun and equally fraught. . . . Bryan writes with enthusiasm and economy in a voice appropriate to his teen protagonist and packs the story with colorful minor characters. . . . An abundance of pop-culture references could also attract adult readers wanting a trip down Memory Lane." -- Kirkus Reviews " Ventura and Winnetka is a dead-on evocation of what it was like to grow up in the Valley in the '70s. The stereo store scene, when the sales guy finally gets to the good speakers, had me laughing out loud. J.G. Bryan gets it right." --Lou Mathews, Pushcart Prize-winning author of L.A. Breakdown and Shaky Town "It doesn't matter that I grew up on the East Coast in the mid-to-late 1970s. What J.G. Bryan captures so faithfully in terms of dialogue and social environments clearly illustrates that no matter where you came of age, 1970's culture was as shared and communal as a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Wine being passed around at a Dave Mason concert. Douglas, theprotagonist, and his motley crew of West Coast pals trip and cavort through cars, stereo shops, sex, record stores, and senior year with a desperate search for truth and meaning. With real life beginning to loom, the stakes grow higher as the ground begins to shift underneath them. Punk rock culture begins rearing its head as the "Me" decade approaches its close and Bryan manages to create a viscerally vivid universe that calls to mind American Graffiti , Dazed and Confused , and other great cinematic rite-of-passage films. The dialogue crackles with all of the warmth and authenticity of a record needle searching for that first groove at the head of the album. As the characters begin to come to grips with things like sickness and catastrophic car injuries, it's as if we get to experience their growth in real-time. I felt like I was riding with these guys, sharing the same laughs and obsessing over the same girls and music. All that said, it doesn't really matter what decade you grew up in. Ventura and Winnetka captures the essence of adolescence and teenage struggles, the drama, the camaraderie, and all of the fragile emotions that will always push this age group to the edge." --Chris Epting, co-author of Dave Mason's memoir Only You Know and I Know and author of It Happened Right Here: America's Pop Culture Landmarks, "Bryan writes with enthusiasm and economy in a voice appropriate to his teen protagonist and packs the story with colorful minor characters. . . . An abundance of pop-culture references could also attract adult readers wanting a trip down Memory Lane." -- Kirkus Reviews " Ventura and Winnetka is a dead-on evocation of what it was like to grow up in the Valley in the '70s. The stereo store scene, when the sales guy finally gets to the good speakers, had me laughing out loud. J.G. Bryan gets it right." --Lou Mathews, Pushcart Prize-winning author of L.A. Breakdown and Shaky Town "It doesn't matter that I grew up on the East Coast in the mid-to-late 1970s. What J.G. Bryan captures so faithfully in terms of dialogue and social environments clearly illustrates that no matter where you came of age, 1970's culture was as shared and communal as a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Wine being passed around at a Dave Mason concert. Douglas, theprotagonist, and his motley crew of West Coast pals trip and cavort through cars, stereo shops, sex, record stores, and senior year with a desperate search for truth and meaning. With real life beginning to loom, the stakes grow higher as the ground begins to shift underneath them. Punk rock culture begins rearing its head as the "Me" decade approaches its close and Bryan manages to create a viscerally vivid universe that calls to mind American Graffiti , Dazed and Confused , and other great cinematic rite-of-passage films. The dialogue crackles with all of the warmth and authenticity of a record needle searching for that first groove at the head of the album. As the characters begin to come to grips with things like sickness and catastrophic car injuries, it's as if we get to experience their growth in real-time. I felt like I was riding with these guys, sharing the same laughs and obsessing over the same girls and music. All that said, it doesn't really matter what decade you grew up in. Ventura and Winnetka captures the essence of adolescence and teenage struggles, the drama, the camaraderie, and all of the fragile emotions that will always push this age group to the edge." --Chris Epting, co-author of Dave Mason's memoir Only You Know and I Know and author of It Happened Right Here: America's Pop Culture Landmarks, " Ventura and Winnetka is a dead-on evocation of what it was like to grow up in the Valley in the '70s. The stereo store scene, when the sales guy finally gets to the good speakers, had me laughing out loud. J.G. Bryan gets it right." --Lou Mathews, Pushcart Prize-winning author of L.A. Breakdown and Shaky Town "It doesn't matter that I grew up on the East Coast in the mid-to-late 1970s. What J.G. Bryan captures so faithfully in terms of dialogue and social environments clearly illustrates that no matter where you came of age, 1970's culture was as shared and communal as a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Wine being passed around at a Dave Mason concert. Douglas, theprotagonist, and his motley crew of West Coast pals trip and cavort through cars, stereo shops, sex, record stores, and senior year with a desperate search for truth and meaning. With real life beginning to loom, the stakes grow higher as the ground begins to shift underneath them. Punk rock culture begins rearing its head as the "Me" decade approaches its close and Bryan manages to create a viscerally vivid universe that calls to mind American Graffiti , Dazed and Confused , and other great cinematic rite-of-passage films. The dialogue crackles with all of the warmth and authenticity of a record needle searching for that first groove at the head of the album. As the characters begin to come to grips with things like sickness and catastrophic car injuries, it's as if we get to experience their growth in real-time. I felt like I was riding with these guys, sharing the same laughs and obsessing over the same girls and music. All that said, it doesn't really matter what decade you grew up in. Ventura and Winnetka captures the essence of adolescence and teenage struggles, the drama, the camaraderie, and all of the fragile emotions that will always push this age group to the edge." --Chris Epting, co-author of Dave Mason's memoir Only You Know and I Know and author of It Happened Right Here: America's Pop Culture Landmarks, " Ventura and Winnetka is a dead-on evocation of what it was like to grow up in the Valley in the '70s. The stereo store scene, when the sales guy finally gets to the good speakers, had me laughing out loud. J.G. Bryan gets it right." --Lou Mathews, Pushcart Prize-winning author of L.A. Breakdown and Shaky Town

SynopsisThe author of Ventura and Zelzah follows up that critically acclaimed debut novel with Ventura and Winnetka , a stand-alone work that furthers the adventures of Douglas and his friends as they come of age in Southern California's San Fernando Valley in the late 1970s. As seniors in high school, the gang spends their final year before college practicing crazy car stunts, getting high, obsessing about girls, passionately listening to the great rock and roll of the '60s and '70s, arguing about the Dodgers and the Lakers, and partying at the prom in powder blue tuxedos. From a West Hollywood porn theater to a punk rock club in Chinatown to the site of the Manson murders, the Valley boys also begin to spread their wings as they explore the city of Los Angeles, located "just over the hill" from where they live. Like Ventura and Zelzah , the stand-alone Ventura and Winnetka is a funny, poignant, and nostalgic coming-of-age tale about the relationships of teenagers on the verge of adulthood. The re-creation of the Valley culture of the late 1970s is palpable and magical., Introduces YA readers to the extremely permissive milieu of 1970's suburban Los Angeles. Addresses issues specific to teenage boys, including peer pressure, negotiating the minefield of a first romance, and coping with the treacherous territory between the naivete of adolescence and the temptations of young adulthood. Adult crossover appeal as a nostalgic look back at teenagers in the 1970s that will resonate with baby boomers. National PR campaign targeted at media outlets with a focus on Southern California, 1970's nostalgia, and teenage coming-of-age issues

LC Classification NumberPS3602.R9343V48 2022