Book Review - We're All In This Together by Owen King

We're All In This Together: A Novella and Stories
Owen King
Bloomsbury USA
ISBN # 978-1582345888



George is the 15-year-old son of a single mother. Al Gore has just lost the 2000 election, at the mercy of the Electoral College. His mother is planning to re-marry and his former union organizer grandfather is waging a paintball war against the local paperboy, whom he assumes is defacing a huge poster of Al Gore on his front lawn. George tries to prevent the wedding and help his grandfather catch the neighborhood vandal.

Obviously, there's more to this story - so much so, in fact - that this novella feels like a full length novel. King has a way of drawing you in, and then throwing in a small detail capable of bringing about a huge revelation. It's almost as if he's checking to see if you're really paying attention.

The short stories are good in their own right, but will leave you wanting more.

It's tough to be an adolescent, but even harder when every member of your family has an agenda, and you find yourself going with the flow, not quite sure how it will all turn out. Owen King, in an elegantly understated style, has shown what it is to be a teenage boy on the cusp of manhood, trying to navigate a world gone mad and a dysfunctional family.
(July 2006, pp 242, $13.95)