Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada

By turns funny, romantic, erotic, and sad, this evocative novel brilliantly recreates the landscape of late adolescence, when friendships seem eternal and loves reincarnate. Set in Arkansas but first published in The Netherlands, Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada--or Cody, as it was titled in the U.S.--quickly won praise from reviewers and readers across Europe and North America and caught the attention of William S. Burroughs, Jonathan Williams, and other writers who befriended the young author (Hale began writing the novel when he was sixteen). The first edition of the book was immediately banned in the United Kingdom during Margaret Thatcher's Operation Tiger. Today, Clicking Beat remains unique in its treatment of teen homosexuality, socialism, and existentialism.