Stuck

by Michael Frederick

A RANDOM COIN TOSS MADE BY AN ENCYCLOPEDIA salesman. A mail-order Charles Atlas course. Two lazy alcoholic parents. A rich kid named Kaladi (sounds like potty). A secret love named Helen. All of these and a thousand other quirky things helped launch Adam Pitt into that rarified air where the ordinary becomes legendary. It was the early 1970's in Pittsville, Missouri-that awful, wondrous season in Americana when talented small-town athletes were "STUCK" facing serious decisions about war, death, and desertion.

266 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Agnes Muscoreil · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coming of age tale set during the turbulent times when being drafted to go to Vietnam was the biggest dilemma many young men had to make.

[Mitchell Waldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stuck by Michael Frederick is that rare book these days, a real page-turner of a coming of age novel. Set in the Vietnam War era, Adam Pitt (also known as "Ape" or the "Freak of Pittsville") is a young man who develops extraordinary jumping abilities, has a couple of parent who are slothful at best, has very low self-esteem based on severe acne issues, but is a high school record setter with his jumping abilities. With the Vietnam War lottery giving him a low number and his determination to avoid going to college Adam is stuck in his life and past and in a real pickle as to what to do in the future. Will he go to Nam, will he go to Canada, will he get a scholarship and avoid the conflict? Inspired by a girl he loves but who loves another, he jumps, jumps, jumps, but can he jump out of going to war? With a great cast of characters, this is a John Irving-type story without the verbosity of Irving and a book I highly recommend. -- Mitchell Waldman, author of Brothers, Fathers, and Other Strangers, among other books