Lance Rally is a ragingly ambitious, pop culture obsessed, tragically romantic young man who tries to find "cool" while attending college during the 1980s. He faces pressure to live up to his super-achieving family and is fueled by grandiose ambition. He wants to become a big success but is prone to distraction. He also has a deeply romantic nature and, thought inept, he is sincere and falls in love easily. He discovers emotional complexities as relationships with a beautiful psych major and a feisty goth girl shape and change him. Friendships with a punk rock actor and a subversive scholar challenge his careerist world view. He risks disaster as the clock of academia ticks on.
The Pursuit of Cool is an intense and emotional ride through album covers, dance techniques, all-nighter revelations, and corporate internships gone bad. The story comes alive with music and movies, which give Lance solace as he questions his beliefs and his heart gets crushed. He tries to capture that elusive quality, that magic of youth, the essence that is "cool."
With strong reviews from Kirkus, Midwest Book Review, Writer's Digest and many others, this novel was a Winner of a Next Generation Indie Award. It appeals to fans of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, and John Hughes movies. It's the definitive novel of the 80s. It gets past the stereotype, to the way things actually were in the 80s.
"An experience as moving and thought provoking to its reader as it is to its hero."
--Literary Inklings
"A skilled writer... A smart account of '80s college kids...believably summons the '80s, complete with floppy disks, 9 1/2 Weeks on VHS and R.E.M. cassettes."
--Kirkus Indie Review
"...A novel surrounding college student Lance Rally, as he seeks to rise to the top of the social ladder by finding what cool is, only to be swept into the whirlpool of its many definitions. With plenty of humor and a strong moral on the purpose of youth, The Pursuit of Cool is a strong pick for general fiction collections and those who want an original take on the college dynamic."
--Midwest Book Review
"Skidmore has skillfully crafted a sympathetic protagonist whom readers root for... and the narration has an understated lyrical quality."
--Watch Me Bounce
"An excellent job of taking a character and creating his time and place perfectly. A totally enjoyable flashback ride..."
--Dew on the Kudzu
"From The Clash to Joy Division to Bauhaus.... it provides the perfect setting. A great debut, and I can't wait to read more from Robb Skidmore."
--The Book Fetish
"The characters are so well-developed and precise, I am already envisioning which actors would play them on the big screen."
--Mamarific
"Lance...such a lovable character! The lovable male character who is kind of goofy and different, loved easily, intelligent, but who has a depth... I loved it!"
--Novel d'Tales
"A splendid job... The lively dialogue is the real music of this novel."
--Writers Digest
Join Lance on his intense ride!
