Most Things Haven’t Worked Out

Most Things Haven't Worked Out is a coming of age story about the painful pursuit of love, fortune, and fame reading like an optimistic Jesus' Son for a new generation.

A nameless narrator traverses the West Coast of the United States through California, Oregon, and Washington. Haunted by their own demons, they join a punk rock band, get high on mushrooms with their uncle, and fall in love here and there, all in an ironic quest for coolness.

Told through a series of follies, Pierce presents a journey of finding agency from someone who doesn’t have an inkling of what they want out of life. We follow the narrator as they try on identities like clothing, set against an early 2000's Pacific Northwest backdrop. A novel about a drifter seeking purpose in life, with a sense of optimism akin to the satirical misadventures of Voltaire’s Candide.

Cameron Pierce is a Wonderland Book Award winning author and editor. His most recent book, Taut Lines: Extraordinary True Fishing Stories (Little, Brown UK), is a nonfiction fishing anthology. His writing has appeared in The Barcelona Review and Gray's Sporting Journal, and his books have been featured on Comedy Central's @midnight and The Guardian. In 2015, he was the Mellon Scholar-in-Residence at Rhodes University in South Africa. He lives with his family in Astoria, Oregon.