Flick

The postindustrial town of Redcar on the rusting seaside of northern England is the setting for Brit actress Tarttelin’s debut novel, a place filled with aimless youth, closed factories , and loads of drugs. It’s here that schoolboy William S. Flicker (Flick to his friends), drinks, smokes, snorts, and wanks his way through his final year before university as he prepares to take his entrance exams. Despite fancying himself a ladies man, life for Flick is boring, predictable, and virginal until he meets the new girl in town, Rainbow. An orphan raised by lesbian mothers, Rainbow is smart; she watches foreign films, reads books on art and politics, and opens a window onto the outside world for Flick while they gradually fall in love. What follows for Flick is a journey of personal discovery and self-improvement until life in Redcar intrudes upon the couple’s happiness. When Fez, the local drug dealer, demands that Flick help him with a “package,” the consequences are dire. Tarttelin captures the blush of a first romance and the patter and pace of the inhabitants of northern England but the story is familiar: the English antihero drug addict, complete with musical citations and pop cultural references. The novel does, however, come with a soundtrack available for download. An ambitious effort, but little substance . (Oct.)