The Parking Lot Attendant

Oh, no. This was excellent...so the next few books I read will pale in comparison. It's a good problem to have, I guess.
I could not put this down. I found it memorizing, as if I were under a spell. Who is this unnamed girl child and WHY is she so attracted to this older man who must be some sort of con artist? Then, I think I fell a little in love with him too.

This bit floored me: “You're better than the garbage that privileged white people can afford to tell you because they have no investment in you. They don't know that if you or I were to run around, talking about how we're too busy feeling and finding ourselves to look for a real job, we'd be considered jokes, at best.”

Nailed it.
Or this amazing magic:
“Night coffee is sometimes how change begins”
- Where can I buy a t-shirt with this on the front?

I found myself reading and then breathing and then rereading.
It's a short, powerful little story that kicks you in the ribs while feeding you ice cream. Fantastic.

Note to self: Read this while listening to The Incendiaries and there are some major parallels to these stories. Boston, obsessive relationships, religion (in a way, if being “American” is a belief system), girl under the spell of a charismatic leader....so many parallels. Sadly, I could not help but compare them while reading/listening to them together. Would make a super interesting compare/contrast topic for a book club.