THE BOOK:
Book Jacket Summary:
Marcus Coleman was born and raised in the order-conservative region of the former United States; a United States that decades earlier had shattered into two different countries and four distinct extremist cultures.
Marcus always felt conflicted about the xenophobic and rigidly conformist place he calls “home”, but after an argument with his dad leaves him feeling hopeless about the pursuit of his dreams, he finds himself in a rare moment of impulsiveness. When Dylan, his football teammate and best friend since the first grade, runs away from home, Marcus joins him.
Like a pair of nomadic Goldilocks, they embark on a journey of self-discovery, entering a strange new world full of drastically differing political ideologies and struggling to find a culture that feels like the right fit. Although raised in a culture that demands strict loyalty, their travels lead them to discover differences between themselves that test the limits of their friendship.
Marcus always felt conflicted about the xenophobic and rigidly conformist place he calls “home”, but after an argument with his dad leaves him feeling hopeless about the pursuit of his dreams, he finds himself in a rare moment of impulsiveness. When Dylan, his football teammate and best friend since the first grade, runs away from home, Marcus joins him.
Like a pair of nomadic Goldilocks, they embark on a journey of self-discovery, entering a strange new world full of drastically differing political ideologies and struggling to find a culture that feels like the right fit. Although raised in a culture that demands strict loyalty, their travels lead them to discover differences between themselves that test the limits of their friendship.
Genres:
Fiction:
- Foreground Story: Coming of Age, road trip.
- Background Story: Political/Social Satire, Dystopian, and Utopian
Books and other media with similar genres, styles, or themes:
BISAC Codes:
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Similarities: Political/Social Satire within a Coming-of-age story. Young men/boys run away from home and travel through unfamiliar territory meeting divergent personalities. A naive main character travels through various cultures, exposing their flaws. Puerto Paz is, however, written for adults.
- Gulliver’s Travels
- Similarities: Political commentary via bizarre foreign worlds with unusual customs.
- Atlas Shrugged / The Fountainhead
- Similarities: Political/Social commentary made within a story. Puerto Paz is hopefully much better written, and the political/philosophical conclusions are not at all similar to Ayn Rand's.
- Brave New World
- Similarities: In Puerto Paz, each of the four former USA regions is like its own dystopian mini-novel.
- 1984
- Similarities: In Puerto Paz, each of the four former USA regions is like its own dystopian mini-novel.
- Fahrenheit 451
- Similarities: In Puerto Paz, each of the four former USA regions is like its own dystopian mini-novel.
- On The Road
- Similarities: Cross-continental travel and crossing borders, and the interpersonal relationships and friendships that come and go along the way.
- Good Will Hunting
- Similarities: The relationships between young men. Finding oneself.
BISAC Codes:
- FIC052000 - FICTION / Satire
- FIC043000 - FICTION / Coming of Age
- FIC037000 - FICTION / Political
- FIC055000 - FICTION / Dystopian
More about the book... free copies of the book's appendices, Easter Eggs in the book, and the history of writing the book.
© 2020 Jefferey J. Reese - All rights reserved.
