Rocket Man — William Elliott Hazelgrove

The Catcher in the Rye for the fortysomethings. Not quite boomers, five years old during Woodstock, missed the sixties revolution and ended up being mellow in the seventies, partied in the eighties, floated in the nineties, then lost it all in the Great Recession. Welcome to the world of Rocket Man. Dale Hammer is stuck in the suburbs with too much house, too much car, too high taxes, and no way out. In one week he is accused of cutting down the sign to his subdivision, plagued with a father who has come to live over his garage, in danger of losing his home, on the hook for being Rocket Man of his son's Scout Troop, staring at the dissolution of his marriage, and trying to give his son a sense of independence. Not since The Graduate has a novel nailed the age we live in. Funny and poignant, you will laugh and cry as Dale looks for an American Dream in retreat.