A book set in the seventies about living off the grid and being a free spirit. A boy leaves his family and hometown behind with a new friends; a girlfriend and an anarchist friend. They try living off the land and in seclusion. I really liked this book and recommended it to many. ( )

This debut novel starts with an ill-advised romance between a 17 year old boy and his teacher in Kentucky. They team up with the town drifter, and go on a road trip to New England to start a new, idyllic life as anarchic squatters in an old Vermont farmhouse. The story then twists into a claustrophobic and muddled tale of hardscrabble living and frustration through a cold Vermont winter, with a side-story concerning a holy relic and two priests from the Vatican that is completely irrelevant.
The narrator in this story is personable, but I didn't believe the point of view could possibly be of a 17 year old boy. The quick romance and friendship seemed expedient, and the story itself was a mess. Despite these factors, I did enjoy this book somewhat, mostly due to the scene setting and prose of the author. I would be interested in any work he puts out in the future, but I cannot recommend this book to all but the extremely patient. ( )

I found this disappointing. It is regular novel with 1st person narration about a high school kid who takes up with his teacher & goes off to NYC & then Vermont. he gets involved with odd criminal types, and then lives with his girlfriend & another friend in a deserted house, freezing & starving. I think the characters could all be described as "flawed but human" but it didn't move me.

Thomas Mahey feels the literal and figurative walls around him. As the narrator of Justin Tussing's debut novel, The Best People in the World, Thomas takes us with him on his search for freedom.

It is 1972. Thomas is a 17-year-old living in Paducah, Kentucky, a town with a 20-foot high floodwall erected to protect it from the Ohio River. He feels similar walls forming around his life. In the summer before his junior year of high school, his father gets him a job at the local power plant, the same place his father labors much of his life. A self-described "second-tier" student, Thomas is in the vocational program, not the "standard curriculum." It reinforces his sense that his future is being circumscribed. Yet the events of the summer and school year soon lead him on a journey of reinvention.

Balance of review at http://prairieprogressive.com/?p=669