Review: Stephen Florida

Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book stayed with me so powerfully after I read it in December 2017 that I decided to make it the required book club experience for the Summer Reading class I've been teaching. I originally listened to the audio but read through Kindle Prime this time around. I should have given it five stars last time so I am doing so this time - I actually don't think it's a perfect book but the amount I thought about it after finishing it, the characters and some of the discussion points - make me want to rate it as highly as possible. This is not a book I would have been drawn to but there is something about it that is really special.

Stephen is a college wrestler with single-minded focus on his goals, but you can't be sure if his version of reality is sound, and the reader has a lot of work to do. He's also not likeable per se but so perfectly rendered that I continue to think about him, wondering what happened to him after college, etc. Cover art uses a work by George Boorujy, and it is a standout book cover.

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