Customer Reviews

Regionrat

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`Regionrat' shows a seedy side of the region

BY TIM SHELLBERG
Times Correspondent

Regional chambers of commerce will probably want to steer clear of Richard Laskowski's "Regionrat."

With tales of heavy partying, twisted relationships and catastrophic outcomes, "regionrat," the authors debut novel, takes a frankly spoken and brutally honest look at Northwest Indiana in a light that can be deemed by more sensitive readers as unflattering at the very best.

Yet he had to view his old hood from more than 2,00 miles away to get the proper perspective he needed to write his book.

"The region is seedy," he said. "What you're getting here is what I perceived it to be after being removed from it."

A true rat of this region, Laskowski, 27, has lived in Valparaiso, Ogden Dunes, East Chicago and Michigan City before heading for Chicago, then uprooting from the area altogether for Seattle. He lived there for seven years before returning to the Midwest in November. The distance from his roots while in Seattle gave him the clarity to begin writing what would become his debut book. Inspired by the often-gritty writings of the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski, and hacked with only a writing class, Laskowski spent a half-decade working piecemeal on "Regionrat," both while in Seattle and as recently as the beginning of this year.

For the book, Laskowski juggled real-world characters and situations with those exaggerated and fictional. Set in the first few months of 1995, "Regionrat" finds its young protagonist, Raymond Kozlowski, and his ripping-and-running mates struggling with their wild times and substance abuses right here in Northwest Indiana and the Windy City.

Laskowski took a chapter out of his own life for a pivotal sequence of events in the book, which yielded a disastrous outcome.

"It ended up where I was really made to be the bad guy and there were people who would not listen to my side of the story, and that's why I wrote this book," he said. "I lost a lot of friends through this experience, and I also realized who were my friends. This is my side of the story and I'm the only person who knows the truth with this (situation)."

"Regionrat" was published earlier this week by Six Gallery Press, based out of Macon, GA. Laskowski was attracted to the publishing company's mostly hands-off handling of his book.

"We really have total freedom in writing what we want and that's pretty rare nowadays," he said of his publisher. "There's no editor switching things around and there's no outside influence other than maybe constructive criticism. What you're getting is the absolute truth from the writer."

Laskowski is at work on his second tome. While he has some idea where the book will take its readers, he cant guarantee any outcome at this stage of the game.

"It's still in the skeleton stage; I don't have any idea really what it's going to turn into," he said. "When I write, my writing takes me where it wants to take me.

"I try to control where it goes, but it's going to pull me where it wants to pull me."

Absolutely superb assesment of live in the Calumet Region. Anyone that grew up in this area needs to read this book. Matter of fact, anyone the grew up in an urban area would find this book outstanding.

While it is no surprise that "the region" has it's shortcomings, the author clearly had an ax to grind. Much of this story revolves around high school drama that is not endemic to "the region." The drug stories are good and clearly authentic. However, the story is a tale of youthful indiscretions. Rather than accepting responsibility for his actions, the author chooses to blame the environment for his hardships. The title is misleading. While the author would like the reader to believe that all these bad things happen to him because of "the region" and the people who live there, much of his misfortune is brought on by his own propensity for gossip and drug abuse. While I'm happy that he has finally found peace and happiness in Seattle, this reviewer feels that the author should move on. Furthermore, I have never read a book with so many typos. It was almost if it was never proofread. I'm not sure if this was symbolic, but I found it to be quite annoying. All in all, it has potential.

I can totally relate to the things that happened in this book. That was me!

This twisted story of violence and drugs in highschool will leave you wanting more! It's a total page turner, laugh out loud in public, counterculture novel. The cover not shown in this add is also quite a conversation starter!

This is a good read for anyone who is from a metropolitan area or anyone who wants to know what it is like to grow up in one. It is a great read for anyone who grew up in "The Region". It is a true account of typical teenage life in that area.