Oneonta The Novel Julian Koosman 9780978829827 Books
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A gripping novel about coming of age in the most corybantic of places and times, Oneonta in the early 90s. No syrupy sentimentality here, this is a deep dark comedy about surviving the pitfalls of unrestrained bacchanalia, of staying sane while surrounded by madness, of discovering purpose in the confusion of aimless youth, and the ultimate triumph when purpose is finally realized and the first steps are taken on the road to controlled destiny…
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FROM THE BACK COVER
Hank Gardner was an aspiring guitarist trapped in the boredom of his youth on Long Island in the late 1980s. While he had dreamed of escaping via the fame and fortune of rock & roll stardom, he realized that this was not going to actually happen and that he had better find an alternate escape route before he got stuck there for good. All seemed hopeless until he began hearing stories of a college in upstate New York that had been ranked the best party school in the country. Oneonta quickly became his beacon of salvation, and the acceptance letter to this school became what he thought would be his ticket to experience everything that life had to offer. When he got there, it was everything he imagined it would be—alcohol, drugs, sex, freedom—but he failed to consider what four years of unrestrained indulgence would do. A psychotic episode on some potent LSD during which he thinks he has died and is smoking marijuana with Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley makes him realize what a mess his life had become. After recovering from this episode, Hank attempts to find direction via love first with Maria Viola, a girl he went to high school with who had been in love with him since ninth grade; then with Virginia Duvall, the girl of his dreams who shows up out of nowhere at their dorm room but gets involved with one of his friends; and finally with Lucy Burns, a licentious alcoholic honors student whom he finds at the bottom of the barrel. Through the writings of his hero, Jack Kerouac, Hank is finally able to find the inspiration he needs to find a new road that will lead him out of town with an education he could have gotten in no other place.
EXCERPTS
The houses in town are old timberboxes, some with fraternity letters crudely nailed to them, many with empty beer kegs littering their front porches. Down on Main Street are sooty old four and five story brick buildings with street level shops and apartments on the floors above. A block south of Main there is Water Street, which is more of a paved alley running between the three-story parking garage and the legendary strip of sixteen bars squeezed into vacant spaces on the backsides of the Main Street buildings. Bars such as the Alley, Paradise, the Sip & Sail Tavern, Sports On Tap, the Black Oak—their neon signs glowing in the windows like beacons signaling the real beginning of my life.
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I didn't know how long I was out, but when I opened my eyes I was back in my room sitting on the edge of my bed. I felt feverish and my face was covered with sweat, so I got up and opened the window. The cold air felt good and I stared at the snow glittering in the dorm lights. My entire body started tingling and everything around me ground to a halt. The tingling became a tearing at the fiber of my physical being and a solid glass sculpture shaped like my body fell out of me. I made a fumbling attempt to catch it, but I missed. When it hit the floor it shattered into a million tiny pieces except for two bleeding red chunks on top of the pile. Like a guilty child I looked around to see if anyone had noticed, but no one was there. The lights were out and several candles were burning in wax-streaked beer bottles. Bob Marley's fluorescent cartoon head inside one of the posters on the wall started laughing, and next to him a miniature Jimi Hendrix was sitting Indian-style loudly chewing a wad of gum and strumming a scorched Stratocaster.
"Look at da mess you made, mon!" Marley laughed.
Oneonta The Novel Julian Koosman 9780978829827 Books
This book will be very nostalgic for anyone who has gone to Oney in the last 40 years. Howevere, it is very poorly written. Often confusing or dull at times. It will make little sense to someone who never went to the school because much of the book relies on nostalgia.Product details
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Tags : Oneonta: The Novel [Julian Koosman] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A gripping novel about coming of age in the most corybantic of places and times, Oneonta in the early 90s. No syrupy sentimentality here,Julian Koosman,Oneonta: The Novel,Clay Road Press,0978829824,FICTION General,Fiction,Fiction - General,General,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
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Oneonta The Novel Julian Koosman 9780978829827 Books Reviews
Took me right back to the early 90's. Times of my life!
This novel captures the excitement as well as the excess of college life. It is an examination of a kid from Long Island experiencing the wonder, confusion and exuberance that every college student goes through. Anyone familiar with SUCO is sure recognize the people, places, and scene. Had to laugh out loud at times. Koosman nailed it. Just wish I remembered half as much...
I only kept reading this book, because there were a few coincidences between his college experience and mine. Very few. The first being that we both lived in Matteson Hall our freshman year and off campus on our last and also hung out at The Oak where my friends and I hung out. I kept waiting for any description of the college in any degree to make me feel like I was back there and only got a few tidbits. There was not use of campus, library, dining halls and especially of classes. He saved all his descriptiveness of his drug use and his longing for girls. I felt this got very tiresome as I went from chapter to chapter and only hear drug, girl, drug and girl. I din't even really get a good description of the bars he was in enough to feel like I was there. Not to speak ill of the dead, but what a waste of a life. Having been out of Oneonta for almost 30 years I don't remember a lot, but I do remember my eccentric teachers and campus activities and yes some crazy parties and probably consuming more alcohol then I have consumed in all my years after college.
This is an ok novel. Couple of drunk guys that do too many drugs. There was one of these guys on every floor. I went to oneonta at around the same time this book takes place. it did give me a good trip down memory lane. Water street. Cold cheese pizza. Golding pit. Matteson hall.
This book, about the college I attended and loved, and the town I lived in for six years (three for college, three thereafter), is, although set nearly a decade later, a fish-eye lens look at the life many college students live, in general, and many Oneonta State students live, specifically. It is truly remarkable.
Went to Oneonta. Thought this would be interesting. Couldn't even finish it. It's very unlike me not to finish a book.
I went to O-State in the late 90s and thought this would be good for a few laughs and to stir up some fond memories at some wild drunken tales. Honestly, I thought it would be kind of silly and maybe even stupid, but it was very engaging and darker and deeper than I was expecting, and there is some really funny stuff as well. Yes, there is a lot of drinking and drugs, and I don't know how anyone can deny that because that was the culture there and everywhere back in the 90s, especially Oneonta. The story is about a guy who is seeking something he hasn't been able to find, and he went to Oneonta to try and find it and got more lost in the drugs and alcohol, which actually left him feeling more empty. It isn't so much a celebration of debauchery (I think that's what I was expecting), if anything it is somewhat of an indictment of drugs and alcohol. And this novel is not about "the full Oneonta experience," it's about immature young people trying to find their way in life while passing through Oneonta. The town is the setting, and the book is about the characters in that setting, and I'm sorry, there was a lot of drinking and drug use when I was there and also long before then from all the stories I heard. Let's be real, that's what college kids do everywhere. Although the book is not about the academic aspect of the school at all and no faculty or classes are mentioned, if this author really did go to school there and pass through the English/Creative Writing/Journalism Department there (the main character mentions chasing his dream as a writer), then kudos to his professors for developing such a brilliant talent who can write a novel of this caliber. This is an excellent novel and a story that kept me engaged to the very end, and that's about all you can ask for from a novel.
This book will be very nostalgic for anyone who has gone to Oney in the last 40 years. Howevere, it is very poorly written. Often confusing or dull at times. It will make little sense to someone who never went to the school because much of the book relies on nostalgia.
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