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Title: Genuine, funny, and ultimately heartbreaking
Review: The central premise of "Girl" is as old as storytelling itself: young person comes of age. That Nelson could have done so much to make it fresh and original is a genuine tribute to his skills as a writer, particularly when one realizes that this is his first book. Our main character and diary-style narrator, Andrea, leads us by the hand through a tangle of botched romances, unrequited love, sexual identity crises, and the Portland, Oregon underground music scene. The narration is in turns hillarious, terrifying, heart-rending, torrid, achingly beautiful, and frantic. By the end, one can't help feel like Andrea's older brother, wanting to put an arm around her and tell her that she's good people with a bright future and a fulfilling social life -- but, by the time we are truly tempted to do it, we also know her well enough to know that she'd step away from our arm and say something gen-X'er like "Oh, puh-LEASE," anyway. It's a great read.
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