The Wonder Bread Summer: A Darkly Funny, Heartbreaking Coming-of-Age Caper – College Student on the Run in 80s California - Softcover

Blau, Jessica Anya

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062199552 ISBN 13: 9780062199553

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2013

Synopsis

“Picaresque, properly funny, unpredictable and altogether irrepressible.” —Nick Hornby, The Believer

Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and Mary Jane, delivers a darkly hilarious, heartbreaking coming-of-age novel with The Wonder Bread Summer.

In The Wonder Bread Summer, loosely based on Alice in Wonderland, 20-year-old Allie Dodgson has adventures that rival those Alice had down the rabbit hole. Or those of Weeds’ Nancy Botwin.

Allison is working at a dress shop to help pay for college. The dress shop turns out to be a front for drug dealers. And Allison ends up on the run—with a Wonder Bread bag full of cocaine.

With a hit man after her, Allison wants the help of her parents. But there’s a problem: Her mom took off when Allison was eight; her dad moves so often Allison that doesn’t even have his phone number….

Set in 1980s California, The Wonder Bread Summer is a wickedly funny and fresh caper that’s sure to please fans of Christopher Moore, Carl Hiaasen, and Marcy Dermansky.

About this title

About the Author

Jessica Anya Blau’s novels have been featured on The TODAY Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and NPR, and in Cosmo, Vanity Fair, Bust, Time Out, Oprah Summer Reads, Oprah Daily, and other national publications. Jessica’s books have been translated into many languages and have been optioned for film and television. Her short stories and essays have been published in numerous magazines, journals, and anthologies. Jessica sometimes works as a screenwriter, a ghost writer, and has taught writing at Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College, and The Fashion Institute of Technology. Jessica grew up in Southern California and now lives in New York City. 

From the Back Cover

It's 1983 in Berkeley, California. Twenty-year-old Allie Dodgson is a straitlaced college student working part-time at a dress shop to make ends meet. But when the shop turns out to be a front for a dangerous drug-dealing business, Allie finds herself on the lam, speeding toward Los Angeles in her best friend's Prelude with a Wonder Bread bag full of cocaine riding shotgun and a hit man named Vice Versa on her tail. You can't find a more thrilling summer read!

Reviews

All 20-year-old Allie Dodgson wants is her paycheck, so she can cover rent and college tuition at Berkeley. But her lecherous, cocaine-dealing boss won’t settle up with her unless she takes her clothes off. Instead, Allie steals a Wonder Bread bag stuffed with blow from the back office and heads for Los Angeles, where she hopes her parents will be able to provide her with some advice. The only problem is, she doesn’t know where to find either of them. During her search for her family she meets a paraplegic porn producer, a legendary rock ’n’ roll star, and the best tamale chef this side of the Rio Grande. Like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, upon whom she is based, Allie is disturbed but undistracted as the world around her grows curiouser and curiouser, and she never forgets her overall goal of finding her way home. Blau weaves a tale that is raunchy, poignant, and triumphant in turn—and sometimes manages to be all three at the same time. --Amber Peckham

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062199552
• ISBN 13: 9780062199553
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288