Category: Mainstream Publisher: Boardwalk Media
ISBN-10: 1483907171
Type: Fiction
Pages: 330
Copyright: January 18, 2011
ISBN-13: 9781483907178
A new novel about a self-destructive college basketball star forced to confront his past, his family, and the Atlantic City where he grew up. In a world filled with alcohol, sex, violence, and love, Lost Exit chronicles a turbulent summer in the life of Timmy Davenport.
“It was a nowhere place.
But for Timmy Davenport, it felt like home and never changed…..”
For fans of Bright Lights, Big City, Less Than Zero, and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh:
A new novel about a self-destructive college basketball star forced to confront his past, his family, and the Atlantic City where he grew up. In a world filled with alcohol, sex, violence, and love, Lost Exit chronicles a turbulent summer in the life of Timmy Davenport. While life styles clash on the boardwalk, his family and friends are pulled into the middle of a bloody territorial war between rival mob families that leaves a trail of bodies scattered throughout town. Haunted by a past of poor choices and addictions, Timmy tries to piece his life back together as he searches for the love of a game that was once his salvation. As he prepares for a basketball tournament that can define his future, Timmy, like Atlantic City itself, has to confront the ghosts of his past.
More than a coming of age novel, LOST EXIT blends the pain and angst of youth with the emotional struggle of characters coming to grips with their own identities. LOST EXIT is about a young man trying to move beyond his past, despite scars that never quite disappear and fears that linger inside. It blends the pain and angst of youth with the emotional struggle of a character searching for his own identity.
Lost Exit is about those last chance opportunities everyone wishes they had.
COMPELLING
I had to think about this one for a couple of days. This is not a story about sports but rather the struggles of one Timmy Davenport and the demons that plagued him from age twelve to twenty-one. Timmy grows up on the side of Atlantic City most of us have never heard about but yet have the same neighborhoods in our own towns. Kevin Michaels introduces us to the underworld of Atlantic City.
It is seedy, drug infested, and packed with mob connection behind the bright lights of the casinos.
Timmy is the kid who does good by getting away from the town that harbored him for eighteen years. He gets his big break by obtaining his "golden ticket" a basketball scholarship to St. Augustine. It isn't the largest or most prestigious university but it offers him a chance to never return home. Home, something he really doesn't have. His father is convinced, his basketball dribbling son (along with his three older brothers) will eventually come to his senses and get a "real" job working in the family business. His father almost gets his wish when the demons from Timmy's past resurface at a college party. He thrusts his hand through a plate glass window turning his right hand into a bloody mess costing his team a shot at finally advancing (hopefully) to the final four. The doctors and his coach aren't sure if the wrist will completely heal from all the muscle and tendon damage. Without a 100% healing, Timmy will lose his scholarship and his ticket out of Atlantic City. He will be left to follow in his father's footsteps and never meet his demons head-on. Don't take the next statement as cliche, it isn't and don't think I'm getting all soft and mushy, but the love of a good woman helps Timmy face all of his demons of the past and take on those that are connected too close to home.
Okay, I don't want to give away anymore of the plot. At times I hated this story and at others I couldn't put it down. The author, Kevin Michael, addresses issues many teenagers of today face all too often; underage drinking, access to hard drugs, cutting, suicide attempts, and family tragedy. This is a very compelling read. The lessons we learn from how Timmy is forced to face his demons can be applied to all us in everyday life.
Readers beware;this book is brutally honest and thought provoking.
Gripping Drama
Two steps forward and one step back. That's life for most of us, if we're lucky.
In Kevin Michaels' brilliant crime drama Lost Exit, young basketball star Timmy Davenport returns home to Atlantaic City to spend a scorching summer trying to move on and escape the grip of the past.
Old friends and rivals, booze and drugs, gangs and casinos, bullets and bodies all act as obstacles in the way of Timmy's chances of growing up.
Lost Exit is a gripping and very moving piece of social realism which will appeal greatly to fans of the television series The Wire.
Imogene, a country-bred girl, longs to make a life for herself in New York City. She joins forces with her former college roommate to start a movie production company in the big city.
Imogene, a country-bred girl, longs to make a life for herself in New York City. She joins forces with her former college roommate to start a movie production company in the big city.
