I never really understood how bad it was between Lucy and her mother until the incident. When Lucy was a sophomore in college, a male friend of hers physically assaulted her. It wasn’t sexual, at least not overtly. Apparently they were arguing and Lucy must have pushed one too many buttons because this asshole attacked her in the school library. I didn’t know him very well but in my brief encounters with the guy it was obvious to me that he was an insipid narcissist whose boyish good looks helped pass off his brashness as charm. He was stupid enough to attack her in public and thankfully was spotted and arrested before he could do too much harm to my Lucy.
I was working for some Fortune 500 company at the time. When I got the call from Lucy, I explained to my boss why I had to go in the middle of one of our meetings. My boss told me to go but that it would count against my record. I was still in the evaluation period before they could accept me as full time. I told her that would be okay because the job was terribly fucking boring and I was really hoping to get fired. She fired me about a month later.
When I got to Lucy, she was a mess. I was angry and wanted to kill the motherfucker who had accosted her. I was an idiot, but not for very long. She was wearing a face I hadn’t really seen before. She was ashamed, frazzled and terrified. I adjusted my attitude and focused on her.
“Are you okay?” I tried holding her.
“My mother.”
“Your mother?”
“What am I going to tell my mother?”
Lucy had to file an official report and the school notified her parents. I followed her home and we sat in my car for a few hours outside of her parent’s house. She didn’t want to go in and face whatever punishment her mother had planned. I had already witnessed Lucy wither away as her mother’s muffled voice came out of Lucy’s iPhone receiver. Despite all the bullshit arguments and fucking insanity that we ever went through, that was one of the only moments I ever felt removed from Lucy. That wasn’t the only time her mother created a divide between us. Even after Lucy cut off all communication with the bitch, her mother’s indelible mark would fuck us both over.
A winner of the Hollywood Book Festival, So Go On and Live poignantly and bitingly captures the angst and restlessness of modern American youth. Pedro "Pete" Salcedo, a young but worn down journalist, is on a figurative and metaphorical journey through the absurdity of life, America and beautiful women.
After accepting a prestigious job in Washington, D.C. and subsequently losing the love of his life, Pedro loses himself, first to his work, then to the road and eventually to the apathy, alcohol and cynicism that permeates through youth culture. Pedro struggles, like many of his generation, to get his life in order and hang on to love, sanity and pathos in this modern world, where women, relationships and sexuality are constantly evolving.
So Go On and Live is a wild and emotional expedition into the existential and farcical perspective of a drunken, Mexican-Irish, would-be poet offering a new breed of optimism that comes with a nihilistic twist.
After accepting a prestigious job in Washington, D.C. and subsequently losing the love of his life, Pedro loses himself, first to his work, then to the road and eventually to the apathy, alcohol and cynicism that permeates through youth culture. Pedro struggles, like many of his generation, to get his life in order and hang on to love, sanity and pathos in this modern world, where women, relationships and sexuality are constantly evolving.
So Go On and Live is a wild and emotional expedition into the existential and farcical perspective of a drunken, Mexican-Irish, would-be poet offering a new breed of optimism that comes with a nihilistic twist.
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Genre - Literary Fiction
Rating – PG-13
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