A Fiat, an expulsion, and hard knocks
May 9, 2011 2:20 PM Subscribe
Please help me remember the title of a young adult novel I read in the late 1980s, involving a young American man who drives a Fiat, goes to college, joins a fraternity, and ends up getting expelled and working in a fast food restaurant.
A fair amount of the beginning of the book was spent describing the protagonist's home life, including their humorously large dog, and the need to erect a gigantic fence around their house. He breaks lots of small rules, including parking his Fiat in the wrong spot in a parking ramp. At the fast food restaurant, his job is to fry potatoes. His parents practice tough-love, making him survive on his own (hence the fast food job, I think), although his mother secretly slips him some cash. His father tells him that it is a parent's duty to prepare a kid to be a member of society.
The book's message about adulthood and responsibility stuck with me, and I want to recommend it to others, but unfortunately I can't remember what is is called, or who wrote it. (I think the author was a man).
A fair amount of the beginning of the book was spent describing the protagonist's home life, including their humorously large dog, and the need to erect a gigantic fence around their house. He breaks lots of small rules, including parking his Fiat in the wrong spot in a parking ramp. At the fast food restaurant, his job is to fry potatoes. His parents practice tough-love, making him survive on his own (hence the fast food job, I think), although his mother secretly slips him some cash. His father tells him that it is a parent's duty to prepare a kid to be a member of society.
The book's message about adulthood and responsibility stuck with me, and I want to recommend it to others, but unfortunately I can't remember what is is called, or who wrote it. (I think the author was a man).
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posted by milkrate at 2:50 PM on May 9, 2011