Now I'm Here

';It's people like Mama and me, I guess, who like to make the regular happenings in our townlike what happened to Joshua and Davidsound like myth. There are those who doubt the veracity of my words. But I know. I was there.'So begins the voice of Eric Gottlund in Jim Provenzano's latest novel, Now I'm Here, as he begins his tale of how two boys discovered, lost, and then found each other again in the small town of Serene, Ohio, in the 1970s and '80s. It is both pointed and poignant. As the town's history is slowly erased by fading memories and encroaching suburbia, Eric brings back to life the two friends who showed him what true courage is. Fighting religious intolerance, small-mindedness, ';rehabilitation therapy,' the lure of fame, and the heartbreak of AIDS, the two boys grow into men before our eyes. And through their love of each other and rock'n'rolland the English rock group Queen in particularJoshua and David breathe life back into their home town, if only for a while.