Blowin' It

Huskey's coming-of-age road novel finds 23-year-olds Billy George and his girlfriend Lucy Muraski travellling from Seattle, where Billy graduated from college, to Philadelphia. But the dissatisfied couple breaks up and Lucy returns home to New York City. After the breakup, Billy goes to live in a Philadelphia loft apartment and takes a dead-end job as an overworked case worker at a charter school. Meantime Duane Richardson, Billy's co-worker, dies and leaves him a $50,000 life insurance payout after they had "lightheartedly" made each other the beneficiary of their company's free policy, neither thinking of someone better. With the new windfall, Billy is hired to transport art antiquities in a van decorated with an Eddie Van Halen paint job to Santa Fe. After delivering the cargo to a conman named Larry, Billy learns that Lucy has relocated to Key West where she peddles seashells. Billy sets out in the Van Halen van to reunite with Lucy and encounters a few colorful characters like the Texan chili vendor Butt Doyle along the way. Billy parties with the fickle Lucy in Florida where his life goes into a tailspin, forcing the young man to do some serious growing up as Huskey's fun and adventurous story closes. (Aug.)