Two Guys from Verona: A Novel of Suburbia

By James Kaplan

Book Overview

Highly acclaimed on its publication and selected by The New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year, Two Guys from Verona is a rare breed of novel, striking a powerful chord across the nation and making James Kaplan the unexpected voice of a generation. It's the fall of 1999 in the plush New Jersey suburbs, and Will and Joel are fortyish, friends since the second grade. Will is a successful, tired cardboard salesman with a mortgage, a pretty wife, and 2.2 kids. Joel lives with his moth and works at a sub shop. Joel's favorite pastime is cruising the dark streets in his rusted-out '74 Chevy, drinking whiskey from a brown paper bag. Will feels sorry for Joel. And Joel feels sorry for Will. But their twenty-fifth high school reunion will change both their lives in ways neither has dreamed of - one facing death, the other facing life for the first time. "A bittersweet elegy for what, not too long ago, looked like a spanking new American version of the promised land." - The New York Times Book Review

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802136230
• ISBN13: 9780802136237
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Provocative, haunting book

Several months ago, I finally got around to reading Two Guys from Verona by James Kaplan. The book is set in Verona, N.J. (I believe that's near where James grew up), and follows two friends in their early 40s, friends since high school. One, destined for greatness, lives with his nutty mother and has difficulties with mental illness. The other did all the things he was supposed to do, including joining his father's business, marrying, having children, buying a house... Besides capturing upscale suburbia and the way many of us live now uncannily well, this book also explores how much of life is beyond our control--especially for those who just follow it rather than trying to take control."

Nice!

I loved this this book, it was a refreshing break from all the nihlistic stuff ive been reading lately (Palahniuk). It was very funny, dramatic, suspenseful, and above all; entertaining.

A masterpiece of baby boomers in suburbia

Frankly, I bought Two Guys From Verona because I grew up in Cedar Grove, the New Jersey town that neighbors Verona. And when I read the jacket copy comparing Kaplan's fiction to Updike, Salinger, and Cheever, I thought I was being set up for a big disappointment. Quite to the contrary, the book swept aside my reservations from the moment I opened it. I was drawn into the lives of Kaplan's incredibly engaging characters and the wonderfully tense situations he creates for them. I found myself compelled to recount every scene to my girlfriend who also hung on every word. If the book has any fault, it is its all-to-quick wrap-up; I would have preferred the loose ends to remain unravelled. Though I am a lifelong reader, it is the rare book that "I can't put down." Two Guys From Verona is one such book.

Brutal and brilliant take on gimme-everything suburbia.

One of the most disturbingly accurate books on life in our I'm-owed civilization I've ever read. Kaplan shows that middle age starts young and that you never stop thinking about your youth even after you've supposedly grown up. The longing never dies. If you grew up in suburban Jersey, you'll know these people and remember why you loved and hated the ones you loved and hated.

Painfully realistic

As a "Fourty Something" type living in Northern New Jersey, I found Two Guys to be right on the mark. Kaplan has really captured something here. I finished the book a few weeks ago, but can't stop thinking about it. I have to read it again.