Home After Dark: A Novel [Hardcover]

Wildly kaleidoscopic and furiously cinematic,In Smalls haunting coming-of-age tale, 13-year-old Russell Pruitt grows like a determined weed in the wake of masculinity so toxic it has literally killed a menagerie of pets in the small California town where he lives with his troubled father&. The story traffics in archetypesthe mean kid who frames the weirdo; the festering cruelty beneath the idyllic small-town facadebut never tips over into trite. With strikingly few words, Small tells Russells story in close-ups of bullies sneers and birds-eye views of parking lots. Cats, dogs, lions, and other animals haunt Russells waking life and his dreams, perhaps because he, too, fights tooth and claw to survive. In depicting the toll of the harsh environment surrounding these lost boys, Small unearths an (almost) impossible tenderness.Veteran artist and illustrator Small turns a deeply focused lens onto the isolation, loneliness, and relentless cruelty of male adolescence in this immensely powerful new work. The dark narrative would be oppressive but for the unexpected kindness shown by a Chinese immigrant couple and several small, quietly profound moments of beauty. Drawn in Smalls signature style, the narrative feels more like a series of sketches that capture the choices made by Russell and the people around him, snapshots of actions and consequences rather than a traditional narrative. The illustrations, limited to pen, ink, and washes done in a simple, loosely sketched style, convey the nuanced range of emotion of all things left unsaid. Spare and powerful, this is not to be missed.Multi-award-winning writer/artist Small (Prominent picture-book illustrator Small (David Small's extraordinary new graphic novel,As an adolescent, when I read ConroysI thought David SmallsA master graphic storyteller who has certainly captured male adolescence in 1950s America. Having to think about dodging high school bullies every day sure resonated with me! And Russellsl³