Born and raised in Naperville, Chicago, Chris Mendius didn’t have to research his characters, he grew up with them. Told with a fresh, unsparing voice, and vivid detail, SPOONFUL follows a group of young drug dealers with bad habits but good hearts, struggling to make ends meet in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood of the late nineties. The place has become overrun with hipsters and yuppies moving in and taking over. Main character Michael Lira, a good guy with a wicked heroin habit, supports his lifestyle through petty crime and the occasional drug deal, and feeds his spirit by slipping away for trysts with Lila, a free-spirited painter who strips to pay the rent.
As
everyone around him seems to be making it big in the Clinton era dot-com boom,
Michael sees his chance for a way out of his life and the hope for a different
future. With the help of his friend Sal, Michael pulls together a bundle of
money and rolls the dice in the stock market. When his well-intentioned plan
fails, his life spins out of his control as he struggles against the
ever-present downward spiral of his addiction.
Amongst
other things, SPOONFUL explores various addictions and the arbitrary moral
distinctions made in our culture when it comes to heroin, weed, alcohol and
painkillers. The novel has received a Star of Remarkable Merit by Kirkus
Reviews and is well on its way to becoming an urban cult classic from a new
author with talent to burn.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
Chris
Mendius grew up in Naperville, Illinois. He earned a BSME from University
of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and an MBA from University of Chicago. After
college, he moved to Chicago and started writing. He currently lives with his
family in Oak Park, Illinois, less than a mile from where he used to score.
Spoonful is his first published novel. For more info on Chris Mendius,
visit www.anythinggoespublishing.com.
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