The Wraith of Skrellman

Set against the pomposity of a small-town theatre community,The Wraith of Skrellmanis the story of a nearly-delusional, completely-homeless 46-year-old troubadour's ill-fated pursuit of a beautiful teenage actress, the resentment this breeds in her precocious classmate Dave String, and the wraith of Skrellman who haunts them all with his "pornographic play-by-play" and frequent acts of occult mischief.

Elegiac at times, downright smutty at others, it's likeThe Virgin Suicidesif that book were a little less masterpiece and a whole lot more teen sex romp. Beneath the populist slapstick exists a literary ode to lost youth, and a mordant satire of the social conservatism of small towns.