Tom Mendicino signs Probation at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse
Mon, Aug. 2, 2010, 7:30 PM
About Probation:
A middle-aged married man whose indiscretion in a men's bathroom forces him to re-evaluate his chosen life becomes a surprisingly sympathetic narrator in this potent debut. When Andy Nocera is arrested at a public highway rest stop, his wife leaves him, prompted by her father, for whom Andy works. Resigned to putting his life back together, he moves home with his mother, recently diagnosed with cancer, and takes a job as a traveling salesman around which he schedules his court-ordered therapy with a stubborn Jesuit priest. Andy attempts to detangle his motivations for both getting married when his emotions lay elsewhere and settling for an existence as a dutiful son. Like a contemporary Ethan Frome, Mendicino's protagonist struggles to reconcile his desires with the expectations of the people around him, and despite the occasional melodramatic moment, sure-footed plotting keeps the narrative from lapsing into a confessional slump.
About the Author:
Tom Mendicino spent six raucous years roaming the country and eking out a living in the Sales Department of several New York publishing houses before attending the law school of theUniversity of North Carolina. His stories, some of them excerpts from Probation, have appeared in several recent anthologies.
More information here.
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