Sunday Book Review: Last Dance at the Frosty Queen

If Richard Uhlig and I had grown up in the same small town in Kansas, we would have been in the same high school graduating class. Perhaps that is why Arty Flood, the main character of Last Dance at the Frosty Queen, seems so familiar. While Uhlig's Harker City is much smaller than my small town, Uhlig has created characters that are familiar enough that I almost found myself taking offense, at times, for what I occasionally perceived as lack empathy on the author's part ...

Almost.

More often I was struck by the number of elements in this story--actually physical descriptions as well as attitudes-- that keep cropping up in my own writing.

Truly, I think I gained a special appreciation for this book when I had the opportunity to meet the author and listen to him speak. The book is billed as a teen read. It sets that pace, in my opinion, a kind of quick-moving narration from a young man's point of view that doesn't stop to dawdle along the way. I felt the desperation of the main character. (Remembered it?) The desire to get out and get on with living life is palpable.

From the first chapter:

Of all the things this burg lacks, dateable girls would have to be at the top of my list. My class, the seniors, has twelve girls in it, right? Three have children, two are pregnant (say what you will, but we yokels know how to entertain ourselves), one is my cousin, one is becoming a nun, one is morbidly obese, and the decent-looking remainders date football players. If you don't play football in Harker City, you don't exist (I don't exist).

Exaggeration? Sadly, not much of one.

If I've learned anything in the last 20 years (yes, it's almost been that long), I've learned that as much as we thought we were all alone in our thoughts/desires/goals as we neared high school graduation, we were all just Arty Floods on the inside... way more alike in our insecurities and our desire to "blow this joint" than most of us ever imagined.

As a preview for my pre-teen, I'm going to have to say she's at least a couple of years away from appreciating the story. It's not particularly graphic, but the sex scenes are rather frank. This is a later teen read. Or perhaps a good book for those of us who enjoy looking back on those years and remembering why we are glad to finally be grownups.

*Richard Uhlig actually lives in New York City now, but I'm labeling him as a Kansas author since he did grow up here. He's a graduate of Emporia State University.