Lewis graduates from Colombia University and goes home to Wichita, Kansas. He's been dumped by his long-time girlfriend and he doesn't want to continue on and join his father and grandfather in becoming English professors, so he goes to stay with his mother, hoping to save a little money for travel as he decides what to do with his life. He may have an Ivy League degree, but a degree in English is not a valuable resource in finding a job.

Arriving in Wichita, Lewis finds not the sanctuary he'd been seeking, but utter chaos. His mother is starting a new business, taking tourists out to chase storms. She's also got two men in her life, one living in the house, the other camping in a tent in the backyard and creating designer drugs in the basement. There are the usual assortment of oddballs and misfits coming and going and, most chaotic of all, his brother Seth is at home.

This novel may be set in a place not often represented in literature, but at heart this is that kind of novel written by men with MFAs living in Brooklyn. That's not a criticism of that, but this isn't quite as specifically midwestern as I had expected and that colored my reaction to the novel. There are several drug-fueled misadventures and descriptions of the dynamics of a well-heeled academic family, as well as descriptions of life in suburban Kansas. Which is to say, the fault lies in the expectations of this reader and not in the novel, which was doing its own thing successfully enough. ( )

3.5 stars. Decent story, good characterizations and unusual descriptions and turns of phrase. I did not deduct stars for the TONS of typos in this book, solely out of loyalty to the usually excellent publisher Europa Editions. ( )

I got this book from the Library, in the new Fiction PB section. I find that these are quality books. The hardbound Fiction section IMHO is the same old same old. Copy cat reruns of some trade best seller. Anyway, without much of an expectation, I checked out Thad Ziolkowski's "Wichita". I'm enclosing the New York Times review. the link is shortened using TinyUrl: http://tinyurl.com/kxsppqc . Hope you like it. ( )