Too Cool

by Duff Brenna

Sixteen-year-old Elbert Earl Evans (known as Triple E) bursts out of Goodpasture Correctional Facility and speeds toward freedom in a stolen Oldsmobile. As he outraces the police, his car stalls in the Colorado badlands in the middle of a snowstorm and he is stranded with his girl-, Jeanne. Once he sets out on foot to find help in a landscape of bone- chilling desolation, his mind becomes a blizzard of memories and images, from the soft, sweet voice of his grandmother to his father?s cruel betrayal to the stark words of a writer named Kafka. The past becomes inseparable from the present as he fights to stay alive?and relives the twisting, tragi-comic odyssey that has brought him to this desperate point. A classic tale of disaffected youth and the yearning for redemption set against the modern American West, Too Cool takes us into the heart and mind of a young man struggling to confront the violence in his nature and find the humanity within.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 13, 1998

About the author

DUFF BRENNA is the author of nine books, including The Book of Mamie, which won the AWP Award for Best Novel; The Holy Book of the Beard, named “an underground classic” by The New York Times; Too Cool, a New York Times Noteworthy Book; The Altar of the Body, given the Editors Prize Favorite Book of the Year Award, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and also received a San Diego Writers Association Award for Best Novel 2002. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award, Milwaukee Magazine’s Best Short Story of the Year Award, and a Pushcart Prize Honorable Mention. His book Minnesota Memoirs was awarded Best Short Story Collection at the 2013 Next Generation Indie Awards in New York City. His memoir, Murdering the Mom, was a Finalist for Best Non-Fiction at the same Independent Publishers Awards.His work has been translated into six languages.

Reviews

[Duff Brenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Finely modulated both in style and moral tone . . . provokes a hard-won sort of compassion at the end. What especially characterizes Too Cool is the honed intelligence of a skilled writer who has brilliantly evoked the airtight impenetrable inner logic of youth determined at all cost to find its own way.” —New York Times

“In Too Cool, Duff Brenna displays a spectacular talent for crafting complex, believable characters.” —Wall Street Journal

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of Triple T is vivid, fast-moving and masterfully written. I admired Brenna's style and his deft handling of time shifts. Brilliant!

[Stijn]

Schoolopdracht - 3e middelbaar.

[Raquel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting fast reader

[Tara Burke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different, Enjoyable, Nice Ending, Easy-read.. looking for something simple but moving; go for "Too Cool" I thoroughly enjoyed it