The Garbage Brothers
A NOVEL
by Paul Neville
“Hauling garbage? Working with felons? It's not the way Jesse imagined his life after high school. This pungent and lively coming-of-age story strikes all the right notes with humor, attitude and a dash of compassion.”
—Susan Palmer, author of The Tabernacle Bar and The Booker Rebellion
About the Book
The Garbage Brothers is a moving and hilarious coming-of-age story set in Chicago in the summer of 1969. Eighteen-year-old Jesse Wheeler’s comfy suburban existence shatters after his father dies, leaving his family broke and his unequipped-for-real-life son adrift. After graduating from high school, Jesse gets a summer job working for a garbage company in the flyspeck blue-collar town of Freedom. Jesse’s ability to survive the punishing lessons inflicted by his co-workers while winning their grudging respect and friendship fills this book with warmth, laughter and heartache.
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“Smart, heartwarming and wickedly funny, this coming-of -age story turns garbage collecting into literary gold.”
—Bob Keefer, Eugene Weekly Arts Editor and author of Idaho: A (dark) love story
“A colorful, bighearted novel about a summer of hauling trash.”
—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Paul Neville is an award-winning journalist who worked for decades as a reporter and editor at newspapers in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. He lives in Oregon, where he is an author and singer-songwriter whose favorite gigs are playing for the homeless. And, yeah, he once helped pay his way through Northwestern University in Chicago by working for a garbage collection company.