Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: A Novel [Paperback]

In the highly personal tradition of Jenny Offill and Elena Ferrante,Buy the Ticket, Take the Rideis loosely based on Sweany's tragicomic teenage life growing up in Indiana and his later years working in the New York publishing industry. Hunter S. Thompson biographer William McKeen called it, “Fear and Loathing in Las VegasmeetsLeave It to Beaver.” And bestselling author Frank Bill adds, “In the vein of David Sedaris or Chuck Palahniuk, Brian Sweany has written a tight satirical story that has you bent over with laughter one moment, then wiping away the tears the next minute.”

“Exposing the belly of the male beast is a brave thing to do. Brian Sweany writes like an American Martin Amis, and that's a great thing.”
—Alexandra Fuller, author ofDon't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

“Funny and tragic, occasionally even a warm, homespun homage-to-me-familia, but it is the dark and subversive stretches that burned deeply into my psyche and kept me turning the page.”
—Sonny Brewer, author ofThe Poet of Tolstoy Park

“A fast-paced, easy to read story that...will hold your attention from the first line in the prologue to the very last page.”
—Mary Monroe, author ofLost Daughters

“By turns funny, dark, and darkly funny,Buy the Ticket, Take the Ridedefinitely won't disappoint.”
—Jon Clinch, author ofFinn

“The kind of coming-of-age story that appears every few years and instantly becomes a classic.”
—Larry D. Sweazy, author ofA Thousand Falling Crows

“Prepare yourself for a nostalgic, strikingly honest trip back to your yearning youth. It will do more than jog your memory; it will run your memory over with a juggernaut of hormones, teen confusion, and dawning awareness.”
—David L. Robbins, author ofWar of the Rats

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