| Category: | Literary Fiction |
|---|---|
| Author: | Stan Fairbank |
| Publisher: | Pava Press |
| Publication Date: | November 2, 2026 |
| Number of Pages: | 342 |
| ISBN-13: | 9798996149001 |
S. Fairbank’s Abbreviated Minor is a big-hearted
coming-of-age novel about Sergio “Serge” Durán. He is an intelligent young man obsessed
with music. He is uprooted from Oakland in 1968 when his free-spirited mother
impulsively relocates the family to hippie paradise Big Sur. Eight years later,
sixteen-year-old Serge is abandoned outright. His mother cancels their lease
and flies to India with Guru Sri Bakavash, “a racketeering, tax-cheating,
serial sexual predator in Jesus drag.” Squatting in his best friend Alex's
basement, Serge goes through a string of doomed restaurant jobs, a brief turn
fronting the gloriously out-of-step band The Furies, friendships with
fellow misfits Shelly and Jacqueline, first loves with the kind Rosemary and
the beguiling, elusive Melinda, and a harrowing New Year's Eve encounter with a
predator. Fueled by punk rock and Village Voice daydreams, he
finally escapes east to New York's East Village—a classic
runaway-to-the-big-city odyssey with a sun-bleached California twist.
Fairbank’s most remarkable achievement here is worldbuilding,
and the 1970s coastal California is captured in exciting, tactile detail, with
the free-box clothes, wet T-shirt contests, astrology parties, and the Sex
Pistols music arriving like a thunderclap through a tiny kitchen radio. The
episodic narrative suits the picaresque genre, reading like a memoir assembled
from equal parts scar tissue and punchlines. The characters are a joy to watch,
from the imperious Lulu and the sardonic Roman to the loyal Alex. But most of
all, readers will love Serge, whose self-deprecating wit and stubborn hope make
him impossible not to sympathize with. The narrative voice makes this novel gripping,
and the author uses it skillfully to keep readers thinking about abandonment,
class resentment, found family, and artistic ambition. The prose in Abbreviated
Minor remains crisp, infused with humor, and sneakily musical
throughout. This enthralling tale turns boomer-era nostalgia on its head.
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