Going Fast

by James Brown

Virgil is going nowhere. He's 16 and attending high school in the late 1970s, living with an abusive uncle and just trying to get through each school day, until a bad decision and an errant can of spray paint spin his life in another direction entirely--and then he's going fast. He meets JT, whose friendship brings him from the familiar streets of Santa Cruz to the wrong side of San Francisco, home of the slums and drug dealers and crime.

Sucked in by JT's magnetic power and unable to resist the temptations of the seedier side of the night, drawn in by the neon and renting a flat across the street from an all-night doughnut joint, Virg might be going too fast to make the right choices, but in the end maybe all that counts is that he's made them at all.

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

James Brown is the author of several novels, and the memoirs, The Los Angeles Diaries, This River, and Apology to the Young Addict (to-be-published March 2020). He is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction Writing and the Nelson Algren Award in Short Fiction. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, GQ, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Ploughshares, and The New England Review.

Reviews

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven--and with stuff that doesn't really seem to belong (phrases like "mind you," for example). But with spots of real excellence--like the last homicidal drive through the fog, the Rod Stewart concert (which unfortunately was Rod Stewart) or the great wine rip-off caper. Also liked the old Chinese guy at the theater. And good lines: "The ocean wavered and glittered like a thousand shiny dimes were spinning below the surface and revolving around themselves." And: "Our minds were going fast, buzzing like pinball machines racking up astronomical scores for a replay on the last damn ball." At his best when describing things manic--and better than some bozo like Kerouac because he isn't trying so hard. Although a few times I could kind of see the strings. And he was only like 12 or something!--I wonder what he did after he grew up.