Too Cool

Elbert--a.k.a. Triple E--Earl Evans, brings new meaning to the term "Problem Child." According to his teacher and unstoppably positive moral supporter, Miss Bridgewater, Triple E has "more poetry in his soul than he knows." That may be the case, but it's a long, frightening journey to wherever that poetry lies buried. On its surface, Too Cool follows our young hellion protagonist as he busts out of reform school and into the raging heart of a Colorado blizzard, where he finds himself fighting for his own survival and that of his faithful sweetheart Jeanne. Beneath that, however, Duff Brenna's third fictive endeavor is the tale of Triple E's lifelong trek across another frozen landscape--a seemingly hopeless past, present, and future populated by a drunkard father, shady friends, a little bad luck, a lot of bad choices, and a hopelessly twisted psyche, equal parts fury and seriously misplaced sexual longing.

Brenna isn't as engagingly psychosexual as Dennis Cooper or as humorous or hip as Denis Johnson. He does, however, demonstrate a special kind of bravery in creating his lead character. When Triple E isn't engaging in bad-ass posturing or self-hatred, he's beating the snot out of drunks, for a few dollars or just for the heck of it. He's not an easy guy to like. Given this, the wonder is that the prose moves along at a fairly steady clip, though the reader can occasionally feel as bludgeoned as one of Triple E's boxing opponents. --Bob Michaels