St. Louis Magazine

July 2006 Issue

A Grown-Up Summer Reading Guide

Headed for Aruba? Pack wisely, so you can pull a hometown author's latest novel from your beach bag
By Cory Schneider

Writing in the vein of David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs, this native of the Ozarks shares a childhood filled with equal parts awkwardness, pain and laugh-out-loud funny moments. The antics of Rouse’s family will ring true for some and seem strange to others, but every reader will recognize the picture of a boy who doesn’t fit in and marches ambivalently to the beat of his own drum. If you’re into family vacations with garbage bags serving as luggage and protagonists who style themselves after late-’70s semi-heartthrob Robby Benson, invite yourself into Rouse’s world