Book Review: The Best People in the World, by Justin Tussing

This debut novel is a coming-of-age novel set in Paducah, Kentucky in the early seventies. Seventeen-year-old Thomas isn't so crazy about his life. His summer working with his father at Western Kentucky State Power doesn't exactly make him eager to embrace his future.

Things take a more interesting turn the next school year, when Thomas becomes romantically involved with his 25-year-old history teacher, Alice. (She resigns before they find out and fire her). Alice befriends a homeless man named Shiloh. The three of them end up fleeing to Vermont that summer, where they can live as they choose. Shiloh and Alice are attempting to forget about their pasts. Alice has a scary stalker ex in her past. Shiloh is an orphan who never had a real family, and his boyfriend committed suicide. With Thomas, the adventure seems to be more of an attempt to escape the dreary future he fears awaits him (well, that and going because his first real girlfriend was going).

Things don't necessarily work as well as they had hoped. I don't think their plans were too terribly specific in the first place. They find an abandoned house in which to squat. They could have joined a cult, but it didn't seem to really appeal to them. However, none of them really have a way to earn any income, and Thomas and Alice are too wrapped up in each other to bother watering the vegetable garden every once in awhile, thus eliminating a food source. They seem to have a good summer, though.

Things get worse when winter hits. They use the last of their money to buy firewood and food staples to get them through the winter. They never go out and proceed to live what looked to me like a mind-numbingly boring and unbearably unhygienic life. I mean, if that were me, I would volunteer to go without eating for two weeks if we could just buy a large supply of deodorant, shampoo, and soap. But then I'd need conditioner or I wouldn't be able to get a comb through my hair, and I'd need body lotion because my skin would get too dry. . .I guess I better not plan on living a back-to-basics life anytime soon.

I could understand Thomas' wanting to escape his possible future, but "working for the man" would have been better than this, in my humble opinion. Of course, none of them seemed to have a clear picture of exactly how they were going to live when they left. If he was trying to find himself, I'd say he just got more lost, as glimpses into his future seem to suggest.

Speaking of those glimpses, they do answer some questions, such as "Do Alice and Thomas stay together?" However, this book has too many loose ends. I was anxious to finish reading it to find out what happens, but was left hanging for the most part. For example, throughout the book there are little interludes describing the experiences of two men traveling around in an attempt to witness miracles, most of which they find are fraudulent. Toward the end they need to travel to New York. The reader understands that the cause for this trip is tied to one of the three main characters, and we do find out why the men go to New York, but there was never really any resolution to this sub-plot. It seems like is supposed to be something profound, but it ended up being pointless. Maybe it was supposed to imitate life in that way; I don't know.