Puff

I came upon "Puff" by accident while staying at my friend's house over Thanksgiving. I read it in one evening. It was one of the funniest books I have read in years (reminded me very much of Davis Sedaris' novels). Side-splitting funny, but at the same time, bittersweet (the main characters' mother is dying of cancer). Really well-written, touching story, but for me the best thing was how irresistibly funny it was. It's been a long time since I laughed out-loud while reading a book (and with this one I laughed almost every other page). Too bad that Bob Flaherty hasn't written anything else!

Puff is a laugh a minute. The adventures of the Gullivan boys is not only hysterically funny but it is moving and full of hope that two crazy immature brothers can grow and develop into caring responsible adults(despite themselves). Flaherty is an up and coming author that you need to keep an eye on.

There's a whole subgenre of fiction which I call the "semi-autobiographical hapless guy coming of age in the '70s bittersweet comedy." A recent high-profile example might be Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude, although there are others that are much much better, such as John McNally's Troublemakers, Tom Perrota's collection Bad Haircut, and the late Chris Fuhrman's The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. This debut from Flaherty ranks right up there with the best of them in terms of pure storytelling and enjoyment, and it's a good bet that someone will be making it into a movie one day. Set in the unspecified mid to late '70s in the Irish-Catholic working class suburb of Morton (just outside of Boston), the story follows the Gullivan brothers over the course of two wild winter days, with numerous flashbacks to childhood events in the '60s. Now in their early 20s, John and Gully are a matched pair of chronically unemployed reckless burnouts. With their father long-dead, and their mother dying of cancer in the hospital, the dynamic duo pretty much lounge around the house reading comics, watching TV, listening to the radio, and getting high. However, their laziness leads to big problems when they put off resupplying their pot stash one day. The next day they wake up after an epic blizzard and have to make their way to Braintree to purchase a their buddy/dealer's last ounce of "Dominican Sin", which he will hold for them until 4pm. The problem is that the city has decreed that no one is allowed to drive. Fortunately, their pal Doody (the tale of his nickname is an unfortunate one), has Red Cross paraphernalia that will allow them to hit the road in their father's old panel truck. Alas, when you dress up as paramedics, people might actually think you are paramedics. And since despite their strong anti-authoritarian streaks the brothers are essentially good people, they can't refuse when flagged down to take a woman to the hospital. Of course, this only plunges them deeper into a series of wacky adventures involving: various villains from their past who are also out and about (a fiendish Monsignor, a bully turned cop, the world's most vicious cat), damsels in distress (the girl next door who has grown up into a delectably sarcastic cutie, a little girl with frozen doggie, an old lady in need of insulin), and a other random folks, like a knife-wielding maniac and a priest with a crisis of faith. All of these adventures, which include multiple evasions from the police and numerous ER visits, trigger reminisces of their childhood in the '60s. The most poignant of these involve their now-dying mother, and her quiet attempts to keep the big family under some semblance of control. Their hardworking and hard put upon father gets plenty of space too, as does his frustrating job as a newspaper distributor. While all the stories and adventures make for great fun, the two days mark a period of transition in the brothers' lives, as the spark of maturity starts t

Although I have not yet finished the book I did grow up with the author (Flaherty), his wife, and son as my second family. Bob has extraordinary talent when it comes to making someone laugh and you will remember him either through his witty comments and/or actions if you are ever lucky enough to meet this man. This novel is a humorous blend of teenage animosity and brotherhood. I recomend it to anyone looking for a hilarious venture into the mind of one of the greatest new authors the world has to offer.

PUFF, though a hilarious comedy, has a depth of emotion that you would not expect at first glance. Yes, this is a novel about an impossible trip through an unprecedented snowstorm to score some pot and Flaherty's colloquialisms are painfully funny, but lost in the synopsis is the fact that PUFF tells a story about the youthful yearnings of love and lust, the blessing and curse of growing up middle class, and at its heart, the importance of family. Wonderfully crafted, Flaherty uses his penchant for humor only to further illuminate the sometimes sweet and often times dark topics his novel addresses. It is clear that the author put his soul into this work. And, being from Boston myself, I can say that Flaherty nailed the Boston area and its people perfectly. This book will do for the city in literature what Good Will Hunting did for it in film, show its people as the loveable underdogs that they are (no matter how many Red Sox Championships may come.)