The Pinned Castle

Evan Juric, the antihero of Jim Dravec’s debut novel The Pinned Castle, is the embodiment of the anxiety and frustration all unrecognized geniuses face trying to get through life. Germaphobic, apathetic, and hilariously cynical, Evan is working through his senior year at a typical public university in central Ohio, trying to make it as a writer while struggling to find love and meaning in a world of trite modern literature, inane reality television, and, of great annoyance to Evan, white males in backwards white hats. The story, told in Evan’s unique voice, follows his interactions with three women: Michelle, his live-in girlfriend who is more focused on her school and career than on Evan, Alice, a classmate who starts giving Evan the attention he is missing at home, and Lynn, Evan’s first love, who has come back into his life and is complicating everything.