I usually avoid coming-of-age stories but I really enjoyed this one. It's very short, and a light read, but I enjoy that kind of thing once in a while. It felt real, and it wasn't trying too hard to glorify something or target a particular group of people. It was simply a story about two best friends who happened to fall in love and their struggle to find a place in the world together.
Brite's writing is descriptive and down-to-earth. I just love her writing style. I haven't read the other books that include these characters, but I definitely plan to pick them up after reading this. My only complaint is the length, which was far too short! ( )

The book that started the series, this was a quick but enjoyable read. I will definitely be reading the third book in the series. Just good all around. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2006/03... ( )

The most frequent comment I've read of the novel is that it's a "coming of age tale of two young boys". The phrase makes me laugh a little, mostly because I feel the characters of the book, John Rickey and Gary "G-Man" Stubbs, would hate hearing it as much as I believe the author, Mrs. Brite, might.
The story introduces us to John, Gary, and their families, and sets the stage for life as adults, as friends and lovers, as well as their introduction to the culinary world.
I read this after finishing Poppy's follow up novel, Liquor, so I was already aquainted with both G-Man and Rickey, and it probably helped me to enjoy this novel a little more since I was already familiar with the plot and was concentrating more on the characters themselves.

Taken by itself, the novel comes across to me as a little bit light, but I think that it lays some very important groundwork for the boy's relationship and aspirations that will pay off for readers in later novels, like Liquor, which follows the two through the opening of their first restaurant, and the forthcoming The Big D. For me this works, as if each entry is another glimpse of a much larger whole that will be filled in as time goes by. ( )