Exurbia Paperback - 2008

A compelling and clear-eyed novel about teenagers living in the margins of Reagan's AmericaLos Angeles, 1985: Reagan is a few months into his second term, and the economy is booming; but the increasing stand-off between the superpowers threatens to wipe out the world, AIDS is a growing epidemic, and50% of marriages end in divorce. Ed Valencia is 17 andhe and hiscrew, the Rats, are marked by their mohawksas troublemakersbut it's the punk scene that has given them ideals, beliefs, anda grasp of a world beyond Yum Yum Donuts and TV reruns. Lise Anderson is 13, and desperate to be cool. She loves the mall, hot pink lipstick, and dangerous-looking boys, but her girlfriends seem to be privy to secretsabout fashion, about sexthat no one will tell her. And then there is Voyd, at14 a frontline warrior for the revolutionary right. While his parents jet across the country, Voyd, alone in a house filled with everything he wants and not one thing he needs, has devoted himself to the cause of keeping the nation white.This is thestory of three lost souls and the ultimately violent collision of their lives. In haunting, angry, and beautiful prose, Molly McGrann explores the margins of 1980s America, and asks questions not only about where we are going, but about how we got here in the first place."