Fun & Games

I received an ecopy of Fun & Games from author David Michael Slater.

Fun & Games starts out as a slice of one man's family, or in this case, one boy's. We have an evil genius sister, a hot sister who knows how to put her looks to use, a writer father trying to not be Jewish, a mother trying to preserve Jewish tradition, holocaust survivor grandparents, and of course our hero Jon, trying and often failing, to keep up with it all.

His group of friends are the usual mix of teenage boys fixated on girls and marathon games of D&D. Jon is forever being bullied, coerced and manipulated by one or both of his sisters. He is one of those people who try to go with the flow, a very difficult task in this particular family.

Mixed in with typical adolescent male hormone fueled goofiness are sometimes heartbreaking and life altering events. Family secrets abound and as Jon matures (at least chronologically), he is forced to deal with them. For the most part Fun & Games is a comedy, and a hilarious one at that. But the end leans more to the serious end of the spectrum.

It does evoke a bit of a nostalgic feeling: the stupid teenage tricks, the determination to lose that pesky virginity ( I didn't lose mine, I know right where I left it) and the rocky transition from adolescent to adult.

Fun & Games can be viewed as a coming of age tale but it's more the antics of the family that puts the "fun" in dysfunctional. David Michael Slater has written a fun and funny story that fans of American Graffiti style entertainment should like. Enjoy!

Mike