And what does Cassidy know about the way I feel? Of course I can feel loved. I open my arms wide and let the wind flow over me. I love the universe and the universe loves me. That’s the one-two punch right there, wanting to love and wanting to be loved. Everything else is pure idiocy—shiny fancy outfits, Geech-green Cadillacs, sixty-dollar haircuts, schlock radio, celebrity-rehab idiots, and most of all, the atomic vampires with their de-soul-inators, and flag-draped coffins.
Goodbye to all that, I say. And goodbye to Mr. Asterhole and the Red Death of algebra and to the likes of Geech and Keeeevin. Goodbye to Mom’s rented tan and my sister’s chargecard boobs. Goodbye to Dad for the second and last time. Goodbye to black spells and jagged hangovers, divorces, and Fort Worth nightmares. To high school and Bob Lewis and once-upon-a-time Ricky. Goodbye to the future and the past and, most of all, to Aimee and Cassidy and all the other girls who came and went and came and went.
Goodbye. Goodbye. I can’t feel you anymore. The night is almost too beautifully pure for my soul to contain. I walk with my arms spread open under the big fat moon. Heroic weeds rise up from the cracks in the sidewalk, and the colored lights of the Hawaiian Breeze ignite the broken glass in the gutter. Goodbye, I say, goodbye, as I disappear little by little into the middle of the middle of my own spectacular now.
Also by Tim Tharp:
Knights of the Hill Country
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best
Winner of the Oklahoma Book Award
*“Jealousy, rage, and tenderness are wrapped around the story’s core theme of self-discovery…this intriguing work demands an audience.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred
“Taut scenes on the football field and the dilemmas about choosing what feels right over what’s expected are all made memorable by Hamp’s unforgettable, colloquial voice that speaks about feelings and football with the same unwavering, fully realized personality. A moving, sensitive debut from a writer to watch.”
—Booklist
“The teen’s voice comes in loud and clear, revealing a sensitive, likeable character…readers will root as much for his team as for Hampton to be true to himself. The dynamic football scenes will draw readers who enjoyed H. G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights.”
—School Library Journal
“Hamp musters the sense and confidence to muddle his way through, and for that readers in the stands can raise a cheer.”
—The Bulletin
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2008 by Tim Tharp
Cover photo art copyright © 2010 by Ericka O’Rourke
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tharp, Tim.
The spectacular now / Tim Tharp.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: In the last months of high school, charismatic eighteen-year-old Sutter Keely lives in the present, staying drunk or high most of the time, but that could change when he starts working to boost the self-confidence of a classmate, Aimee.
[1. Self-destructive behavior—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 3. Substance abuse—Fiction. 4. High schools—Fiction. 5. Schools—Fiction. 6. Stepfamilies—Fiction. 7. Family life—Oklahoma—Fiction. 8. Oklahoma—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.T32724Spe 2008
[Fic]—dc22
2008003544
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89140-3
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