The Impasse

by Michael T. Fournier

Geoff Thignon is a fish out of water. He plays on the school basketball team even though he hates it – and even though he is mercilessly bullied by team member Derek Driver. Geoff quits and begins spending his free time at the library, where he meets Alice Bezeras, a goth obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons.
Alice exposes Geoff to a world he didn’t know existed-of underground music, videogames, and role-playing. After the pair are traumatized by the TV movie The Day After, Alice invents Anytown USA, a role-playing game designed to deal with the catastrophic anxiety of nuclear war. But as she develops the game, she realizes the threat is worse than she imagined.
Geoff and Alice face the impending apocalypse by immersing themselves in punk rock and a fantasy world of their own making, but does trying to escape broken homes with the stories they invent mean dire consequences for their real lives?
Fournier weaves this emotionally wrought coming-of-age story through Geoff's eyes, as well as characters in the role- playing campaigns, The Impasse reveals the connection between the personal and the political as its characters struggle to define themselves and find footing in a world that seems to be on the brink of destruction.

600 pages, Paperback

Published December 20, 2024

About the author

Michael T. Fournier is the author of Double Nickels on the Dime (Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2007), Hidden Wheel (Three Rooms Press, 2011) Swing State (Three Rooms Press, 2014) and The Impasse (St. Rooster Books 2024). He graduated from University of Maine's MA program, where he won the Steven Grady Award for fiction. His prose and music criticism has been widely published, and he's toured the United States extensively -- twice through successful crowdfunded prerelease campaigns.

Mike is a regular contributor ro Razorcake and is co-editor of Zisk, the baseball fanzine for people who hate baseball fanzines He's the drummer and main songwriter for Dead Trend, and plays bass in Plaza, Cape Cod's #1 band.

A lifelong Red Sox fan, he lives in Massachusetts with his wife Rebecca and their cat.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a book! Such a thoughtful and moving coming of age story told with nuance and grit. Great explorations of loss, finding one’s own way, and high school life. And a brilliant intertwining of three complementary storylines — a high schooler’s navigation through alienation and community in the punk scene in 1980s Massachusetts, a harrowing role playing game based on THE DAY AFTER, and a classic Dungeon and Dragons journey. Loved how all of these inner-life stories work together in this book. Fournier is at the height of his powers. Loved it.

[Kevin Shine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a unique coming of age story that I haven't read before. It's about how a nerdy, picked-on kid stumbles upon punk/indie music and learns what gives him confidence, including exploring punk rock fashion. All of the characters are extremely well-developed and I love how the three separate stories are woven together. Even though I haven't had a lot of exposure to the D&D world, I still found the stories captivating. I enjoyed this book very much.