#marc acito

[bitesizebookreviews]

How I Paid for College

RETRO REVIEW

How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft,Friendship & Musical Theater

Marc Acito

276 pages

Broadway Books, 2004

Hard work may pay off in the long run, but the benefits of laziness are immediate. 

Edward Zanni is a high school senior in suburban New Jersey in 1983, Edward and his friends are “Play People,” also known as theater kids. The summer before school starts, this band of friends embarks on an adventure of “CV”, also known as Creative Vandalism. At the start of the school year, Edward’s newly remarried dad drops the news that he won’t pay for Julliard, Edward’s dream, he’ll only pay for Edward to go to college for business. What’s a guy, along with his group of madcap friends to do? 

Natie Nudelman, the group’s computer whiz kid with a broken moral compass comes up with a list. 1. Work. 2. Scholarships. 3. Theft. 4. Murder. OK, murder is a little extreme, but theft? Well, Edward does get a job, and through a little fun and lighthearted theft, fraud and money-laundering to create a scholarship, they should be able to get him to Julliard. And as a bonus, they might get back at his dad’s new wife. All the while they are scheming, there’s a lot of sexual tension in the group as openly bisexual Edward is having trouble pleasing his girlfriend Kelly because he can’t stop thinking about jock-turned Play Person Doug. 

Books written about teens in the eighties basically ignored the LGBT community, so it’s nice to see a bisexual character whose sexuality isn’t the source of drama and heartache. Doug knows Edward has a crush on him and even though he doesn’t return the crush, he is kind of flattered. (Also, Edward isn’t the only LGBT character in the book....but no spoilers).

How I Paid for College is absolutely hilarious. The teenage characters are smarter and funnier and somehow cooler (even though they’re supposed to be big nerds) than I have ever been. There’s a lovely found family storyline, queer characters, crazy schemes, and an absolute loathing of the suburbs that teenage me could relate hard to. (”What have they got to be snobby about? Don’t they realize they live in New Jersey?” asks on character.) It’s a damn shame this hasn’t been made into a movie. 

***** I basically NEVER do this but I went ahead and Fan-casted this book because I love it so much***

Edward Zanni: Noah Centineo

Paula Amico: Beanie Feldstein

Kelly Corcoran: Sabrina Carpenter

Doug Grabowski: Jake T. Austin

Ziba: Yara Shahidi

Natie Nudelman: Gaten Matarazzo

Al Zanni: Bobby Canavale

Dagmar: Renee Zellweger

Kathleen Corcoran: Judy Greer

Mr. Lucas: Tom Kavanagh

[a-year-of-musicals]

Day 206/365 - Allegiance

By Jay Kuo, Marc Acito and Lorenzo Thione

An aged World War II veteran, Sam Kimura, prepares for a Pearl Harbour anniversary ceremony. A woman arrives to inform him that his estranged sister Kei has died, and that she is Kei's executor. She gives Sam an envelope and tells him that the funeral is to be held later that afternoon. Angered by the opening of his old family wounds after nearly 60 years of estrangement, he berates his once-beloved sister for not leaving him in peace. Kei's ghost informs Sam that she couldn't rest in peace without making one last attempt to reconnect with him.

It is 1941, and Sammy is a newly elected class president who dreams of "Going Places", like college and high political office. His widower father Tatsuo, and grandfather Ojii-chan, own a farm in Salinas, California. Sammy adores his older sister Kei, who has postponed her own dreams to help raise him. Tatsuo is always pushing Sammy to be better and reach his potential. Sammy believes that Tatsuo blames Sammy for his wife's death in childbirth. After the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbour in December, the US government fears that Japanese-Americans might be loyal to the Empire of Japan. Nearly all of the Japanese-Americans in the Western US are incarcerated in internment camps. Sammy's family is forced to sell their beautiful farm for a small price and sent to the bleak Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming.

While in this camp, and against his father's wishes, Sammy joins with Mike Masaoka, head of the Japanese American Citizens League, which cooperates with the authorities to identify "disloyal" Japanese. When his grandfather, Ojii-chan, becomes sick, Sammy goes to see the white Quaker volunteer nurse at the camp, Hannah, for some cough syrup. She tells him it is only for the staff, but Sammy is persuasive, and she gives him the medication. The two begin a relationship that causes additional tensions, because interracial marriage with Hannah would be illegal. Tatsuo is not inclined to cooperate. He is sent to a brutal prison for refusing to swear his allegiance by answering "yes" on an unjustly-worded loyalty questionnaire. Sammy's sister Kei falls in love with a draft resistance leader, Frankie Suzuki, and she also joins the resisters advocating for the rights of her people.

Masaoka manages to obtain Washington's permission for the Japanese-Americans to enlist in US armed forces, but only if they take on the most dangerous assignments in the war in Italy. Eager to prove his loyalty, Sammy enlists in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a US Army unit consisting of American-born sons of Japanese immigrants, and he fights bravely in Europe. He leads fellow Nisei on a suicide mission, in which the majority of the soldiers are killed. While in prison, Tatsuo is given a copy of Life magazine that trumpets Sammy's bravery in combat, and is told that he was only let out of his cell because of his son's actions.

Meanwhile, Kei and Frankie, who are still in love, help lead the resistance. Eventually, Frankie's scuffles with a military policeman lead to Hannah's accidental and fatal shooting. Grandpa Ojii-chan, who has managed to grow a crop of vegetables in the mountain's rough terrain, dies peacefully while in his garden. After the war, Sammy learns that Frankie and Kei, now married, have a daughter named Hanako (after nurse Hannah). Aghast at this, he confronts Tatsuo, saying that Frankie was the son he always wanted. Already furious at Kei and Frankie, he learns of Hannah's death at Heart Mountain and blames Kei and Frankie. He then walks away from his family for a job in Washington that Masaoka had offered him after discharge. Kei argues with Sammy, calling him a coward for leaving his family. She tries to stop him, but only manages to tear the Purple Heart off of his uniform.

Back in the present day, Sam attends Kei's funeral, and Kei's executor thanks him for attending. Sam opens the envelope and finds a posthumous bequest from Kei: the Life magazine featuring Sammy's exploits that Tatsuo had kept since his release from prison. The executor then says that her mother wanted to give Sam something else, and she hands him his old Purple Heart medal. He then realizes that the executor is his niece Hanako. He breaks down, aware that he has a chance to forgive and to share in the love and compassion of his family.

Favourite Songs: Do Not Fight The Storm, What Makes A Man, Should I?, Allegiance, With You, Higher, This Is Not Over, Stronger Than Before, Nothing In Our Way, How Can You Go and Still A Chance

Favourite Character: Kei

It takes a strong woman to raise her brother, watch him fight for America and then marry into the resistance, only to let her own daughter execute her.

[rainydaypaperback]

It is 1986, and aspiring actor Edward Zanni has been kicked out of drama school for being “too jazz hands for Juilliard.” Mortified, Edward heads out into the urban jungle of eighties New York City and finally lands a job as a “party motivator” who gets thirteen-year-olds to dance at bar mitzvahs and charms businesspeople as a “stealth guest” at corporate events. When he accidentally gets caught up in insider trading with a handsome stockbroker named Chad, only the help of his crew from How I Paid for College can rescue him from a stretch in Club Fed.

[weakweeb]

I know it sounds crazy, but I'm one of those people who, once they start a story, has to find out how it ends, even if I don't like it. So I kept reading, just to stay alive. In fact, I'd read two or three books at the same time, so I wouldn't finish one without being in the middle of another — anything to stop me from falling into the big, gaping void. You see, books fill the empty spaces. If I'm waiting for a bus, or am eating alone, I can always rely on a book to keep me company. Sometimes I think I like them even more than people. People will let you down in life. They'll disappoint you and hurt you and betray you. But not books. They're better than life.

Marc Acito, How I Paid for College: A Tale of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theatre 

[quotegramapp]

"So I kept reading, just to stay alive. In fact, I’d read two or three books at the same time, so I..."

http://dlvr.it/LWDhgc

[jushkowitznews]

[atalantapendrag]

Argh why do I torment myself by reading reviews of Marc Acito’s How I Paid for College? So much goddamn biphobia, it makes me want to throw things but you can’t irritably toss a website across the room.

It’s an enjoyable book, though. Thanks to thestarstone I read it years ago. It’s about drama kids in New Jersey in the early-mid 80s, and I was a drama kid in Connecticut in the mid-late 80s, so I clicked really well with it in a lot of ways. The main characters do some pretty sleazy and awful things, but it’s a funny and entertaining read (even if I thought the sequel was just meh).

[crushinonsomeone]

@marcacito Once you have found him, never let him go. Jonathan Groff #GroffSauce hamiltonmusical