Written in a most unusual style; I found this book to be a real winner. The author, writing as our narrator and hero, Andrew Nowak, uses the language (profanity and poor grammar) that we would expect from a stoner and aimless drifter. I thought that was a great touch, although it did make it a bit more difficult at first. It just took me a little time to get into the style of the writing, but once I did, it added realism and a certain sort of grace to the story and the character.

Our hero, Andrew, is a down on his luck pot smoker and dealer, with the dysfunctional family that tends to go along with that lifestyle. I really loved the character of his Grandma, and actually enjoyed his Mom, who would be great on either the Jerry Sprenger show or an episode of Maury. I can enjoy characters without liking them, personally. However, I know some readers have a difficult time with characters that seem unlikeable. That may lead some people to have objections to the storyline. I would recommend they try to look past that, because the tale here is a gem.

Andrew mets up with a beautiful woman in a laundromat, where he waiting for his "connection" to arrive. His appointed purchaser is running late, and he and Audra, the woman strike up a conversation. She makes him an interesting proposition, and Andrew goes home with her for a little bit of boy-toy prostitution. She's beautiful, mysterious and wealthy. Needless to say, our hero falls for her in a big way. She's come to this country from Lithuania, as a mail order bride. When she takes off for her country of birth, Andrew is heartbroken. Using the logic only a stoner/idiot would have, he decides to come up with the money to follow her, and win her undying love.

Of course, Andrew hasn't thought this through very well. Upon his arrival in her hometown of Vilnuis, he realizes that he hasn't a clue how to find her, much less win her back. He finds a cheap place to stay, and decides to try his hand at detective work. He finds a bar and new friends to get high with; and through a comedy of errors manages to hook up with his beloved Audra.

Away from the stablizing forces of her husband and life in the US, Audra has returned to her real self-narcisistic, self absorbed, and spiraling out of control. Andrew finally realizes this, after numerous strange and weird, sometimes sad and alternately hilarious twists and turns. He decides to return to America, but needs some cash. From there, things take even larger unexpected turns, and change his life in a way he could never have imagined.

I took some interesting insights into human nature from this tale. It illustrates the sadness and aimlessness of some lives, and the amazing transformation that falling in love with the proper person can bring to a messed up soul. A very unusual story, written in an entertaining and provocative manner. While this book will not suit everyone, I think many people, myself included, will enjoy the unexpected direction and oddball characters. ( )

Drug user and part time dealer Andrew Nowak never expected anything unusual to happen to him the day he went to the laundry mat to sell some stuff. When the beautiful Audra walked in and asked for him by name (his dealer name anyways), he found that he couldn’t say no. He followed her where she wanted him to go, he did what she wanted him to do, then he couldn’t get his mind off her till he saw her again. Becoming friends, he ended up following her to her home town of Vilnius, Lithuania. Because he didn’t know exactly how to find her, he began by finding a place to stay, a place to drink, and people to hang out with (and do some drugs with). Finally tracking each other down, Drew watched as Audra spiraled out of her mind. She did a lot of drinking, a lot of drugs, but it was more than that and after the death of her father, she lost it completely. Witnessing all this and more, Drew decided to go home - but that is not the end of this strange and unpredictable story.

Goodness, that was a difficult book for me to read. I really tried to like some of the characters, any of the characters (ok, I did like grandma - kind of), but I found them to all be written (best way to describe it ) too quickly, too much happened in too short of time - it just kept moving. There wasn’t much depth to any of them. Some of the characters had back stories, memories of the past or quick little tales of ‘how come’, but I found no way of connecting with any of them on any level. I have to point out that it had nothing to do with the complete submersion of cultural slang’s, the extreme use of profanity, the graphic sexual descriptions, or even the heavy drinking and drug use. This is suppose to be a fictional novel, it has the feel of a guy retelling the tale of the strangest couple of years of his life. The narrative is written in the same trash-talking crude vernacular that the main character (and nearly everyone else) speaks. While some places in this book show how misunderstandings or miscommunications can lead to the strangest situations, most of the book came across as a poor representation of some people and places in parts of both Illinois and Lithuania. While a persons mental state is usually a touchy subject, this book dove right in letting it show that, to some point, everyone has a mental limit for good or bad, it is there. This story did have an interesting concept, I enjoyed the quick trip to Lithuania (never been), the use of foreign languages, the accented pronunciation of names (Endee for Andy), and the dog. But, with the writer being an English teacher at a college level, I guess I was expecting - different. ( )