“If
Catcher in the Rye
has lost its raw clout for recent generations of Internet-suckled American youth, here is a coming-of-age novel to replace it.”
—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
The first days of summer: Jim Praley is home from college, ready to unlock Tulsa's secrets. He drives the highways. He forces himself to get out of his car and walk into a bar. He's invited to a party. And there he meets Adrienne Booker; Adrienne rules Tulsa, in her way. A high-school dropout with a penthouse apartment, she takes a curious interest in Jim. Through her eyes, he will rediscover his hometown: its wasted sprawl, the beauty of its late nights, and, at the city's center, the unsleeping light of its skyscrapers.
In the tradition of Michael Chabon's
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
,
A Map of Tulsa
is elegiac, graceful, and as much a story about young love as it is a love letter to a classic American city.