Too Much of Nothing [Paperback]

Michael S. Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 2003

Set in southern California during Reagan's 1980s, Michael Scott Moore's first novel follows the exploits of two teenage boys: Eric, an intelligent, thoughtful, socially restless honors student, and Tom, a defiant, posturing rebel, with a Clockwork Orange complex and a taste for cocaine and cowboy hats. Fifteen years after his ostensibly accidental death at the hands of Tom, Eric narrates the story of his last few months on earth. He believes he is a nefesh, a restless Jewish ghost that wanders the earth until put at ease, and he ultimately realizes that in order to find peace he must reconcile his resentment and vengefulness with his own enduring incredulousness over his premature death. This humorous, honest, and, at times, heartbreaking book introduces a new city to the atlas of imaginary American towns. Moore's Calaveras Beach is a microcosm of L.A.'s protean pop culture, where Rasta beach bums, trust-fund gutter punks, and Nicaraguan drug lords weave in and out of the lives of grieving hausfraus, pitiable driver's-ed instructors, and awkward adolescents. All mix seamlessly in this enjoyable debut novel about the confusion and frustration we face while coming of age, and the fears and apprehensions that may persist well after death.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Eric Sperling was killed 15 years ago, but instead of ascending to heaven like the narrator of The Lovely Bones, he is a troubled ghost in Moore's affecting debut. Eric spends his time haunting L.A., studying the mystical Jewish Zohar tradition at the local library and bemoaning his violent death at the age of 16. Most of all, he broods over his final months and his earthly relationship with his best friend and killer, Tom, a young hellion who acts out the "shlemielish" Eric's anarchic impulses, and Tom's sexually avid girlfriend, Rachel, who seduced Eric and most of the other male characters. Adrift in the moral vacuum of Reagan-era Southern California, the three laxly parented youngsters gravitate to the underground L.A. scene, where glamorous demimondaines elevate punk rock and drug dealing into a grandiose ideology of anti-establishment rectitude. San Francisco journalist Moore has an excellent feel for the worldview of these smart, awkward, yearning adolescents-their intense emotional attachments, their fumbling efforts at self-definition through pop culture, the attraction they feel to inappropriate adult mentors (trust-funded tattoo artists, Rastafarian beach bums) who promise to initiate them into adult mysteries without saddling them with adult responsibility. At times he overloads the high school melodrama at the book's core with philosophical and political baggage, linking it to everything from the Bhagavad-Gita to gentrification and the Nicaraguan Contras. But it remains a satisfying bildungsroman, combining a wry but heartfelt take on teen passions with a serious ethical concern for the fine line between freedom and nihilism.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

For 15 years Eric Sperling has roamed Calaveras Beach, California, as a ghost. He would haunt his killer, but he has discovered that he can't do much unless the hauntee is receptive, and his murderer is on antidepressants, which doesn't seem fair. So Eric tells his story to readers and the homeless guys on the beach. He was 16, adrift in the Reagan years, admiring his best friend Tom's bravado and philosophy, not to mention Tom's sloe-eyed girlfriend, Rachel. Together the boys discovered Kubrick and cocaine, the Dead Kennedys and boogie boards. Their parents were friends, too, pleasantly ignorant of their sons' shadier exploits. After his father's accidental drowning, Tom became harsh, coke-dependent, and abusive of Rachel, who secretly seduced Eric. When Eric confronted his friend, Tom's temper flared into a fatal attack. Fifteen years later, Eric, still not understanding why he remains on earth, visits Tom for the last time. The hundred details of friendship, music, snacks, pop culture, sex, and so forth in a teenager's daily life confirm this odd novel's success. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1st Carroll & Graf Ed edition (August 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786711965
• ISBN-13: 978-0786711963
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,255,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Scott Moore is an American novelist and journalist living in Berlin. His first novel, "Too Much of Nothing," is set in the fictional California town of Calaveras Beach. His latest book is a mixture of history and travel called "Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, With Some Unexpected Results." He's an editor-at-large for Spiegel Online in Berlin, a European correspondent for Miller-McCune Magazine, and a contributor to US publications like The Atlantic Monthly, Salon, and The Los Angeles Times.

His web site can be found at www.radiofreemike.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quotes from reviews and other authors..., August 6, 2003

By 

Mike (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Too Much of Nothing (Paperback)

"Too Much of Nothing is a clever and merciless look back at teenaged friendship, and at two boys' jaded coming of age in mid-'80s L.A. Michael Scott Moore's dead hero recalls all of the romantic terrors and joys of high school with a wry, cold eye. A truly accomplished and absorbing debut."

- Stewart O'Nan, author of A Prayer for the Dying and The Night Country

"A beautiful novel that manages to be scary, funny, and absolutely compelling. Moore's talent for transporting the reader into the very heart of his fictional California surf town is astonishing. I love this book."

- Joy Nicholson, author of The Tribes of Palos Verdes

"Moore's fierce wit and vivid narrative deliver a heady cocktail of friendship, youth, and betrayal worthy of the Korova Milkbar."

- Black Book Magazine

"A cool-handed debut. The style is simple, the language everyday -- but the details and dialogue cut glass-sharp and often bone-deep."

- The Boston Herald

"A satisfying bildungsroman, combining a wry but heartfelt take on teen passions with a serious ethical concern for the fine line between freedom and nihilism."

- Publisher's Weekly

"Beautifully imagined ... A unique and heartrending view into a west-coast beach town teeming with punks, surfers, drug dealers, and a lone nefesh. Michael Scott Moore has, as they say, announced his presence with authority."

- Lee Durkee, author of Rides of the Midway

"A taut, gripping tale of murder animated by rabbi-wisdom and Reagan-era pop culture, Too Much of Nothing is a smart, vibrant, and utterly original novel ... Moore tenderly excavates the heart of an adolescent haunted by angst and longing."

- Rebecca Donner, author of Sunset Terrace

"Moore has written a novel close to Gimpel the Fool meets The Falcon and the Snowman -- a sometimes funny story about a sensitive ghost who while alive and sixteen in the '80s tried, but failed, to enjoy the Dead Kennedys, and got a nosebleed after snorting too much good blow ... There is an ailing and strange loneliness in the prose most powerfully felt by those who have survived grief, who have some distance from the tedious obsessions of youth."

- Joe Loya, author of The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell

"Moore knows the cruelties meted out by children to other children, the bizarreness of first sexual encounters, the offhanded betrayal of friends."

- Ethan Watters, author of Urban Tribes

"A talented stylist. He renders the local landscape with a poet's eye ... [and] captures the milieu of high school well, too, its crystal-clear delineations of class and coolness."

- San Francisco Chronicle

"A prosperous beginning for San Francisco-based reporter and stage critic Moore."

- Kirkus

"A hell of a ghost story."

- Joseph Weisberg, author of 10th Grade

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dead on, August 5, 2003

By 

Marc Levy "scape7" (Cambridge, Mass., USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Too Much of Nothing (Paperback)

I grew up in the environment Moore describes and can confirm that he has captured it perfectly -- but brought its shallowness into a clarity that I sure didn't see growing up. Moore is biting and funny, nostalgic and sad all at once, and he performs a brilliant trick of sneaking a looming dread into a narrative bright with the glare of upper-middle-class sunniness. Just as nice is his creation of complex, true-to-life characters and a beach town that seems to bleed off the pages of the book, like Altman movies seem to have a life outside the camera's eye: You get a sense that there's much more going on. You want to come back and keep poking around.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A quick read with a predictable ending, May 16, 2004

By 

J. Gravener (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Too Much of Nothing (Paperback)

Despite the addage of never judging a book by its cover, I did exactly that when I picked this one up. The cover intrigued me enough to pick up the book and read the first few pages. Once I got home, I could not stop reading it. The use of description is what really pulled me in, the accurate portrayal (of a fictional town) in SoCal evoked memories of my own childhood in the same locale during the early 80s. The conflicted youth, between Establishment and individualism, rings hauntingly clear. However, the ending of the book seemed forced, predictable, and ultimately unsatisfying. I guess I should be glad that it did not turn comical by having the two freinds meet after death while floating above San Francisco.