Lawn Boy

by Jonathan Evison

Overview

One of the American Library Association's Top 10 Most Banned Books for the past two years, this award-winning coming-of-age novel takes readers into the heart and humor of a young man determined to achieve the ever-changing American dream. He just happens to find himself along the way.

“Mike Muñoz Is a Holden Caulfield for a New Millennium.” —The New York Times Book Review

For Mike Muñoz, life has been a whole lot of waiting for something to happen. Not too many years out of high school and still doing menial work—and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew—he’s smart enough to know that he’s got to be the one to shake things up if he’s ever going to change his life. But how? He’s not qualified for much of anything. He has no particular talents, although he is stellar at handling a lawn mower and wielding clipping shears. But now that career seems to be behind him. So what’s next for Mike Muñoz?

Funny, biting, sweet, and ultimately inspiring novel, bestselling author Jonathan Evison's coming-of-age novel evokes the lives of working class people with compassion and honesty. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616209230
Publisher:	Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date:	03/19/2019
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	60,247
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Evison is the author of the novels All About Lulu, West of Here, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, Lawn Boy, and Legends of the North Cascades. He lives with his wife and family in Washington State.

Editorial Reviews

A 2018 Booklist Editors' Choice Pick

“Mike Muñoz is a Holden Caulfield for a new millennium.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Jonathan Evison takes a battering ram to stereotypes about race and class in his fifth novel, Lawn Boy . . . full of humor and lots of hope . . .  Evison has written an effervescent novel of hope that can enlighten everyone.”
—Washington Post
 
“Irresistible . . . funny, honest and real.”
—Seattle Times

“Evison meticulously evokes a richly detailed marginalized world . . . moving, evocative and beautifully written.”
—The Providence Sunday Journal

“Moving . . . Evison convincingly evokes the small disasters and humiliations that beset America’s working poor. Mike’s gradual growth into self-awareness is punctuated by moments of human kindness and grace that transpire in and among broken-down trucks, trailer parks, and strip malls. Focusing on the workers who will only ever be welcome in gated communities as hired help, Evison’s quiet novel beautifully considers the deterioration of the American Dream.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review 

“[A] deeply real portrait of an everyday Joe just trying to find his way. Evison combines humor, honesty, and anger with an insightful commentary on class that’s also an effective coming-of-age novel.”
—Library Journal, starred review

"In his bighearted portrayal of Mike Muñoz, Evison has created an indelible human spirit content to live authentically, which just might prove to be the true American dream."
—Booklist, starred review

“Evison brings genuine humor to Mike's trials and tribulations. The writing is razor-sharp, and Evison has an unerring eye for the small details that snap a scene or a character into focus. The first-person narration turns Mike into a living, breathing person, and the reader can't help but get pulled into his worldview.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Jonathan Evison's voice is pure magic. He is a consummate world builder; in his unique universe, there is heartbreak and love and tragedy, and—always—laughter. In Lawn Boy, at once a vibrant coming of age novel and a sharp social commentary on class, Evison offers a painfully honest portrait of one young man's struggle to overcome the hand he's been dealt in life and reach for his dreams. It's a journey you won't want to miss, with an ending you won't forget.”
—Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale

“A triumph from the ground up . . . finally a book that zooms in on social strata without flinching or copping out. Lawn Boy takes us into the heart, mind and body of Mike Muñoz as he makes a coming of age trek from landscaping crew to navigating the dead American dream— all the way to reimagining a future on his own terms.”
—Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan
 
“Jonathan Evison can write about anything and make it sing with hard-bitten empathy. I love it that he writes about working men without condescension. I had jobs like this. And you can tell that he did, too. Tough and strangely sweet at the same time.”
—Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Queen of America

“In Evison's tough and wry novel, Mike Muñoz is every person who wants a living wage and a little dignity, ‘the opportunity to think beyond sustenance long enough to dream.’ Jonathan Evison has written a fierce and funny novel about a young man's attempts to transcend class and poverty.”
—Shelf Awareness

“It’s a difficult thing to write uproariously humorous fiction that has heart, passion, and inspiration rolled into it as well. The life of Mike Muñoz is a comedy of self-inflicted errors and familial obstruction, but his positive outlook toward achieving the American dream is infectious and inspiring and will make you laugh and cry, often on the same page, sometimes for the same reason.”
—The San Diego Union-Tribune

“A novel about a young man and the changing American dream.”
—New York Post
 
“Few authors handle their characters with the compassion that seems to come naturally to Jonathan Evison. The Seattle novelist’s latest work, Lawn Boy, explores the struggles of the modern American Dream through Mike Muñoz, a young Chicano landscaper in Washington state.”
—Seattle Weekly
 
“Evison’s enthusiasm for his protagonist and his book’s message is evident on every page. It’s the kind of book that elbows its way into your head and forces you to think about your world in a new way.”
—Seattle Review of Books
 
“The book explores the lives of people like Mike with humor and compassion, wrestling with how you get ahead when you can barely stop falling behind.”
—Salt Lake City Weekly

“A coming-of-age story wrapped in a conversational critique of class and capitalism, with equal doses of humor and heart planted here and there.”
—Bainbridge Island Review
 
“Joyful, funny, and life-affirming.”
—Signature Reads
 
“A swift, engaging read, with an alternately wry and wistful sense of humor. But it also addresses painful territory head-on, especially when it comes to American economic and cultural inequality.”
—Cascadia Magazine
 
“Moving, hilarious, and uplifting . . . The genius of the novel, and of its author, lies in the complexity of emotions Mike’s journey evokes, both from its hopeful beginning to its unexpected fulfillment. But it’s also in the nature of that fulfillment—in the subtle sleight of hand Evison works to show that the grass can be greener on either side of the fence.”
—Four Corners Free Press
 
“In this funny, angry, touching, and ultimately deeply inspiring novel, the bestselling author takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young Chicano living in Washington State on a journey to discover himself, a search to find the secret to achieving the American dream of happiness and prosperity.”
—Edmonds News (Edmonds, WA)
 
“An entertaining read, with a few surprises up its sleeve.”
—BookReporter
 
“Lawn Boy is an important, entertaining, and completely winning novel about social class distinctions, about overcoming cultural discrimination, and about standing up for oneself.”
—BookBrowse

From the Publisher

Evison, as in his previous four novels, has a light touch and humorously guides the reader, this time through the minefield that is working-class America…Evison's subject matter and wit are a welcome departure from self-conscious M.F.A. trust-funded prose—one of his many comic targets, along with Walmart, puppy mills and inbred, rich white folks. As he chases the American dream, Mike loses two teeth…but gains so much more—a social conscience, romance and his niche in life. Not to mention a laughing, sometimes teary, audience who stay with him until the very last page.

The New York Times Book Review - Helene Stapinski

★ 02/05/2018
This moving fifth novel from Evison (This is Your Life, Harriet Chance) enters the wry, conflicted mind of Mike Muñoz, a recently fired yard worker with a real talent for topiary and a genuine love for landscaping. When Mike is sacked after refusing to comply with a client’s orders to pick up after his dog, he takes refuge in the one place in the world that’s always welcomed him: the library. As he tries to figure out what to do next, Mike contemplates writing the “Great American Landscaping Novel”—the sort of novel he’d like to read—but writing novels, he realizes, isn’t for people like him: “landscapers, especially unemployed ones... had bills to pay. Cars to fix. Disabled siblings to care for.” Evison convincingly evokes the small disasters and humiliations that beset America’s working poor. Mike’s gradual growth into self-awareness is punctuated by moments of human kindness and grace that transpire in and among broken-down trucks, trailer parks, and strip malls. Focusing on the workers who will only ever be welcome in gated communities as hired help, Evison’s quiet novel beautifully considers the deterioration of the American Dream. Agent: Mollie Glick, Foundry Literary + Media. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

03/01/2018
Eminently readable and deeply thought-provoking, Evison's deceptively simple novel takes on tough issues such as race, sexual identity, and the crushing weight of American capitalism. Mike Muñoz, the 22-year-old biracial (Mexican and white) narrator, has grown up dirt-poor with his hardworking waiter mother and his brother, who is developmentally disabled. The narrative follows Mike's attempts at several other jobs after he's fired from his lawn-mowing gig while he works on his love life and tries to help out his family. After Mike recounts a great disappointment involving his biological father in the first chapter, one of several themes emerges as Mike encounters several potential father figures (often bosses), each with his own deeply flawed philosophy of life. From the cutthroat capitalism of his first boss to the upper-class cronyism of an old high school pal, each man personifies aspects of Mike's life that he cannot stand, even while he learns valuable lessons from them. Meanwhile, other story lines fix on Mike's underdeveloped understanding of his sexuality, which is not helped by the rampant homophobia and sexism of his best friend, and his equally conflicted understanding of his ethnic identity. Unfortunately, Evison's often infective enthusiasm for his preponderance of ideas weighs down the demands of the plot. Nevertheless, the passion with which Mike and Evison share these ideas redeems the novel. VERDICT Give this flawed but exciting coming-of-age story to teens eager to engage with heavy and timely political issues.—Mark Flowers, Rio Vista Library, CA

School Library Journal

This novel comes alive as an audiobook because of narrator P.J. Ochlan’s ability to create unique voices for each of Evison’s characters. At its core, it’s a coming-of-age story featuring Mike Muñoz, a Chicano landscaper who is seeking a break in a society that is seemingly stacked against him. As Muñoz meets the novel’s other characters, his life changes, and in small ways, so does the world around him. The audiobook succeeds because of Ochlan’s ability to give life to Evison’s extraordinary voices and to dramatize the situations the characters find themselves in. Whether it’s when Muñoz has an abscessed tooth pulled or when he confronts those whose wisdom turns out to be less than stellar, Ochlan makes the most of every moment. D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

MAY 2018 - AudioFile

2018-02-20
An aimless young man decides to get his life together, but life has other plans.Mike Muñoz doesn't quite know what he wants out of life, but he knows he deserves better than what he's got now: a terrible job cutting lawns, a truck that barely runs, and a tiny house packed with a disabled brother, an exhausted mother, and his mother's broke boyfriend who likes to watch porn in the living room while jamming on his bass guitar. Soon enough, however, he doesn't even have the job or the truck, and, in an ill-fated attempt to guilt-trip his mom into kicking out her boyfriend, Mike takes up residence in a shed in the backyard. Despite the steady stream of bad luck and worse decisions, Evison (This Is Your Life Harriet Chance, 2015, etc.) brings genuine humor to Mike's trials and tribulations. The writing is razor-sharp, and Evison has an unerring eye for the small details that snap a scene or a character into focus. The first-person narration turns Mike into a living, breathing person, and the reader can't help but get pulled into his worldview. "After all, most of us are mowing someone else's lawn, one way or another, and most of us can't afford to travel the world or live in New York City. Most of us feel like the world is giving us a big fat middle finger when it's not kicking us in the face with a steel-toed boot. And most of us feel powerless. Motivated but powerless." The novel has a light tone and is laugh-out-loud funny at times, but at a certain point, Mike's trials and tribulations move from comically frustrating to just frustrating. With so much going wrong for him, the reader can expect that the universe will smile on Mike eventually, but there's only so many sick family members, unpaid bills, bad jobs, awkward situations, and thwarted plans a character can suffer through. We root for Mike while also wishing we didn't have to root so hard.A book about triumphing over obstacles, and obstacles, and obstacles, and more obstacles.

Kirkus Reviews