cover image GOD OF BEER

GOD OF BEER

Garret Keizer, . . HarperCollins, $15.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-06-029456-4

Beer, class and protest intersect in Keizer's (No Place but Here) creative but not completely successful first novel, about teens in rural Vermont. Led by Quaker Oats, the intellectual pal of "towny" narrator Kyle, a group of friends forms SUDS, or Students Undermining a Drunk Society; the group strives to "lower the drinking age, raise the drinker's awareness [and] destroy the non-drinker's stigma" through nonviolent protest. They hold a party at which guests choose mystery drinks that may be alcoholic or not, and recycle trashed bottles. Momentum builds, but when the local golden girl, Diana, is killed driving a drunk guy home, the group—and their rebellion—falls apart. Tensions only escalate when "redneck" David is arrested for smashing beer bottles at a convenience store because they contained what killed his friend. Keizer handles high school society expertly (at Diana's funeral, the students play "Candle in the Wind" and one reads a bad poem), and he brings the right details to his characterizations of the teens' families, all of whom occupy different places within the town's social strata. The flaws are those of excess: the author juggles more conflicts than he can quite handle and introduces more characters than he can gracefully track. Even so, his story has the ring of authenticity; it's a promising debut. Ages 13-up. (Mar.)