Lawn Boy

An Amazon Best Book of April 2018: It’s a risky to assume that writers are writing about themselves, that their characters are built on the thoughts and feelings of their creators. Maybe, though, it’s a smaller risk with Jonathan Evison. His novels are generally small-scale and personal: humans tackling human problems, often against stacked odds and with inadequate skill-sets. It’s not that we’re reading about the Evison’s own experiences, but each book is an experiment in empathy, rising or falling with the strength of the connection he forges between his humans and the reader. All About Lulu and The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving are two that work best as both fiction and relatable stories, and his latest, Lawn Boy succeeds for the same reasons those books did. As ever, the story is personal: Mike Munoz is a young Chicano landscaper working in a gated, all-white community near Bremerton, Washington, a few stone-skips from Evison’s own territory on the Olympic Peninsula. His future, at first glance, is not expansive. Munoz seems destined to a life on the margins, hemmed in by forces both external and internal: class and race, bad judgment and resentment. Dialogue is often the strength of Evison’s stories, and there’s a lot of it here—driving the story forward as Mike drives toward a future of his own design, regardless of its uncertainty and imperfections. After all, the best gardens are wild, and a little bit dark. —Jon Foro, Amazon Book Review From School Library Journal Eminently readable and deeply thought-provoking, Evison's deceptively simple novel takes on tough issues such as race, sexual identity, and the crushing weight of American capitalism. Mike Muñoz, the 22-year-old biracial (Mexican and white) narrator, has grown up dirt-poor with his hardworking waiter mother and his brother, who is developmentally disabled. The narrative follows Mike's attempts at several other jobs after he's fired from his lawn-mowing gig while he works on his love life and tries to help out his family. After Mike recounts a great disappointment involving his biological father in the first chapter, one of several themes emerges as Mike encounters several potential father figures (often bosses), each with his own deeply flawed philosophy of life. From the cutthroat capitalism of his first boss to the upper-class cronyism of an old high school pal, each man personifies aspects of Mike's life that he cannot stand, even while he learns valuable lessons from them. Meanwhile, other story lines fix on Mike's underdeveloped understanding of his sexuality, which is not helped by the rampant homophobia and sexism of his best friend, and his equally conflicted understanding of his ethnic identity. Unfortunately, Evison's often infective enthusiasm for his preponderance of ideas weighs down the demands of the plot. Nevertheless, the passion with which Mike and Evison share these ideas redeems the novel. VERDICT Give this flawed but exciting coming-of-age story to teens eager to engage with heavy and timely political issues.—Mark Flowers, Rio Vista Library, CA A 2018 Booklist Editors' Choice Pick “Mike Muñoz is a Holden Caulfield for a new millennium.” —The New York Times Book Review “Jonathan Evison takes a battering ram to stereotypes about race and class in his fifth novel, Lawn Boy . . . full of humor and lots of hope . . .xa0 Evison has written an effervescent novel of hope that can enlighten everyone.” —Washington Post “Irresistible . . . funny, honest and real.” —Seattle Times “Evison meticulously evokes a richly detailed marginalized world . . . moving, evocative and beautifully written.” — The Providence Sunday Journal “Moving . . . Evison convincingly evokes the small disasters and humiliations that beset America’s working poor. Mike’s gradual growth into self-awareness is punctuated by moments of human kindness and grace that transpire in and among broken-down trucks, trailer parks, and strip malls. Focusing on the workers who will only ever be welcome in gated communities as hired help, Evison’s quiet novel beautifully considers the deterioration of the American Dream.” —Publishers Weekly , starred review “[A] deeply real portrait of an everyday Joe just trying to find his way. Evison combines humor, honesty, and anger with an insightful commentary on class that’s also an effective coming-of-age novel.” — Library Journal, starred review "In his bighearted portrayal of Mike Muñoz, Evison has created an indelible human spirit content to live authentically, which just might prove to be the true American dream." — Booklist, starred review “Evison brings genuine humor to Mike's trials and tribulations. The writing is razor-sharp, and Evison has an unerring eye for the small details that snap a scene or a character into focus. The first-person narration turns Mike into a living, breathing person, and the reader can't help but get pulled into his worldview.” — Kirkus Reviews “Jonathan Evison's voice is pure magic. He is a consummate world builder; in his unique universe, there isxa0heartbreak and love and tragedy, and—always—laughter. In Lawn Boy , at once a vibrant coming of age novel and a sharp social commentary on class, Evison offersxa0a painfully honest portrait of one young man'sxa0struggle to overcome the hand he's been dealt in life and reach for his dreams. It's a journey you won't want to miss, with an ending you won't forget.” — Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale “A triumph from the ground up . . . finally a book that zooms in on social strata without flinching or copping out. Lawn Boy takes us into the heart, mind and body of Mike Muñoz as he makes a coming of age trek from landscaping crew to navigating the dead American dream— all the way to reimagining a future on his own terms.” — Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan “Jonathan Evison can write about anything and make it sing with hard-bitten empathy. I love it that he writes about working men without condescension. I had jobs like this. And you can tell that he did, too. Tough and strangely sweet at the same time.” — Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Queen of America “In Evison's tough and wry novel, Mike Muñoz is every person who wants a living wage and a little dignity, ‘the opportunity to think beyond sustenance long enough to dream.’ Jonathan Evison has written a fierce and funny novel about a young man's attempts to transcend class and poverty.” — Shelf Awareness “It’s a difficult thing to write uproariously humorous fiction that has heart, passion, and inspiration rolled into it as well. The life of Mike Muñoz is a comedy of self-inflicted errors and familial obstruction, but his positive outlook toward achieving the American dream is infectious and inspiring and will make you laugh and cry, often on the same page, sometimes for the same reason.” — The San Diego Union-Tribune “A novel about a young man and the changing American dream.” — New York Post “Few authors handle their characters with the compassion that seems to come naturally to Jonathan Evison. The Seattle novelist’s latest work, Lawn Boy , explores the struggles of the modern American Dream through Mike Muñoz, a young Chicano landscaper in Washington state.” — Seattle Weekly “Evison’s enthusiasm for his protagonist and his book’s message is evident on every page. It’s the kind of book that elbows its way into your head and forces you to think about your world in a new way.” — Seattle Review of Books “The book explores the lives of people like Mike with humor and compassion, wrestling with how you get ahead when you can barely stop falling behind.” — Salt Lake City Weekly “A coming-of-age story wrapped in a conversational critique of class and capitalism, with equal doses of humor and heart planted here and there.” — Bainbridge Island Review “Joyful, funny, and life-affirming.” — Signature Reads “A swift, engaging read, with an alternately wry and wistful sense of humor. But it also addresses painful territory head-on, especially when it comes to American economic and cultural inequality.” — Cascadia Magazine “Moving, hilarious, and uplifting . . . The genius of the novel, and of its author, lies in the complexity of emotions Mike’s journey evokes, both from its hopeful beginning to its unexpected fulfillment. But it’s also in the nature of that fulfillment—in the subtle sleight of hand Evison works to show that the grass can be greener on either side of the fence.” — Four Corners Free Press “In this funny, angry, touching, and ultimately deeply inspiring novel, the bestselling author takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young Chicano living in Washington State on a journey to discover himself, a search to find the secret to achieving the American dream of happiness and prosperity.” — Edmonds News (Edmonds, WA) “An entertaining read, with a few surprises up its sleeve.” — BookReporter “ Lawn Boy is an important, entertaining, and completely winning novel about social class distinctions, about overcoming cultural discrimination, and about standing up for oneself.” — BookBrowse Jonathan Evison is the author of four previous novels, including All About Lulu, West of Here, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, and This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! He lives with his wife and family in Washington State. Read more