Jonathan Evison

Winner of the Alex Award “Mike Muñoz Is a Holden Caulfield for a New Millennium--a '10th-generation peasant with a Mexican last name, raised by a single mom on an Indian reservation' . . . Evison, as in his previous four novels, has a light touch and humorously guides the reader, this time through the minefield that is working-class America.” --The New York Times Book Review For Mike Muñoz, life has been a whole lot of waiting for something to happen. Not too many years out of high school and still doing menial work--and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew--he’s smart enough to know that he’s got to be the one to shake things up if he’s ever going to change his life. But how? He’s not qualified for much of anything. He has no particular talents, although he is stellar at handling a lawn mower and wielding clipping shears. But now that career seems to be behind him. So what’s next for Mike Muñoz? In this funny, biting, touching, and ultimately inspiring novel, bestselling author Jonathan Evison takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young man determined to achieve the American dream of happiness and prosperity--who just so happens to find himself along the way.

Lawn Boy

Emma Hak-Kovacs

That's what kids should do, they should laugh. If there's a better, righter sound in the whole world than the laughter of children, I don't know what it is.

There had to be jobs out there for a guy like me. Wasn't the American dream built on the idea of equal opportunity? So where was my opportunity ? I wasn't asking for handouts. All I wanted was a job that provided a living wage and a little dignity. That seemed like a reasonable launching pad for any further ambitions I might have. All I needed was the opportunity to think beyond sustenance long enough to dream.

Familiarity trumps just about anything in the end. Why else would we keep making the same mistakes over and over?

I was pretty drunk by that time and pretty goddamn grateful for the crumbs life had been dropping in my path lately, like maybe they were leading somewhere new, some destination I couldn't see yet. I couldn't help but count my blessings: my job with Chaz Unlimited Limited, my new digs in the guest cottage, $217 still miraculously sitting in my checking account. And then there were Remy and all the great books waiting to be read on my workbench. And the dim but compelling possibility that I might one day write a book myself or do something else of distinction. 

For now, I had this beach fire, the lapping of the surf, these people, this beer, this laughter. These pretzels, this music, this momentary sensation that in spite of all the unrest and injustice, and hatred and greed, in spite of the cold, uncaring stars wheeling above us, we live in the most beautiful of all possible worlds.

Gambling fools us into thinking we're somehow impervious to the odds, that the universe might grant us an exception. But then, don't dreams do the same thing?

My advice: If your window doesn't roll down, get it fixed, even if you can't afford to. Also, if you get pulled over, try not to be black.

I'd never been much good at asking for things, and now I had to ask the people I loved to reimagine me as somebody else.

Lawn Boy quotes

Join the club