FFB: Yearbook -- David Marlow

Yes, it's another coming of age novel, and this one's right in my wheelhouse, set in the late 1950s.  It doesn't really dwell much on the time period, but the scenes set in high school are pretty much on the money, especially the opening one.

It seems that a lot of these coming of age books focus on a character who's a little bit of an outsider.  In this case it's Guy Fowler, a very small guy, but smart.  He becomes the buddy of the high-school football hero, Corky Henderson, who's naturally dating the most popular girl in school, a cheerleader named Ro-Anne. And then there's Amy Silversteen, brainy but unbeautiful, who becomes Guy's friend.  Things change for all of them over the course of the novel, and not necessarily for the better.  Some grow and adjust better than others, as is always the case.  Bad things happen to some of them, too, and there's a concluding chapter set at a high-school reunion that allows us to see them a few years down the road.

I always get a kick out of books like this, and while I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as some of the others I've read, I'm glad I happened to run across it at a library sale and pick it up.  It was a nice find.

The book was published in 1977, and David Marlow is still writing, and you can read about him at his website.