The Garbage Brothers

by Paul Neville

The Garbage Brothers is a both poignant and comical coming-of-age story set in Chicago in the summer of 1969. Eighteen-year-old Jesse Wheeler’s comfortable suburban existence crumbles after his father dies, leaving his naive son adrift and without prospects. After graduating (barely) from high school, Jesse finds a summer job humping garbage for Willard Sanitation Service with a crew of felons — Pickles, Zeus, Grits and their foreman Billy Bart—in the flyspeck town of Freedom. A coworker introduces Jesse to his niece, a plain-speaking young woman named Iris who reshapes Jesse’s universe. Jesse’s ability to survive the punishing lessons inflicted by his co-workers while winning their grudging respect and friendship fills this gritty coming-of-age story with warmth, laughter and heartache.

295 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2023

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a journalistic trope that says every veteran newspaper reporter has a “great American novel” waiting to be written, discovered and celebrated. In truth, only a minority feel that calling; a smaller minority act on it; and a yet smaller minority produces something as fine as this debut novel by Paul Neville.
Paul is a longtime former colleague at The Register-Guard who, in fact, was the editor who gave me my start there, hiring me as a part-time copy editor roughly 2 zillion years ago.
But our shared professional life is not what put the incessant smile on my face and chuckle in my gut as I raced through “The Garbage Brothers,” which details the multiple misadventures of one Jesse Wheeler, a new summer hire at a garbage collection company in a small Illinois town in 1969.
In this coming-of-age story, Jesse is most keen to a) survive the job’s physical demands and the barbs of his former-felon co-workers and b) lose his virginity. You’ll get no spoilers from me, except to say that Neville tells his tale with a confidence and competency and pathos not typically found in first novels. His plot twists are at once unexpected and plausible.
They say you’re supposed to “write what you know,” so I wasn’t surprised to learn that Paul, in real life, did indeed help pay his tuition at Chicago’s Northwestern University by working as a garbage man. It’s good to know that the eventual dividends of that experience include this novel, a most satisfying read.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Highly recommended whether you know Paul Neville's work as a journalist or not.

[Jack doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. Entertaining from the beginning and hard to put down. Paul Neville has a winner.

[Patricia R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the author's first novel of a coming-to-age high school graduate named Jesse. Jesse's summer job is working on a trash pick-up crew consisting of a bunch of felons. It has been described as "rich, raw, funny and gritty". I would agree with that assessment. The author hits his strides in the last third of the novel.

Recommended to me by Bubs in Oregon.