Books
When the stars don’t align
Creative writing student Josh Galarza takes on teenage angst in “The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky.”
If writers gravitate to YA lit, it’s hard to blame them — teen heroes offer exquisitely calibrated emotional turmoil. In an NPR interview, John Green, author of “The Fault in Our Stars,” said he wrote about teenagers because “They’re doing so many things for the first time and there’s an intensity to that. … [T]here’s an intensity to falling in love for the first time and also there’s an intensity to asking the big questions about life and meaning that just isn’t matched anywhere else.”
Thus, in “The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky” (Macmillan, 2024), the debut novel by VCU creative writing M.F.A. student Josh Galarza, protagonist Brett wrestles with familiar adolescent torments (his looks; his friends; incipient love interests) — issues he’ll likely outgrow, or at least make peace with, but no less painful.
He’s also facing more grown-up problems. The first: His adoptive mom has cancer. Brett retreats into a comic book world of interstellar superheroes, replete with food constellations, which ends abruptly when an anonymous miscreant posts his journal online. This act exposes another big issue: an eating disorder — something only girls are supposed to develop.
Galarza writes from an enviable position of confidence and accomplishment: two college degrees, a side gig as an artist and now, a debut novel snapped up by a major publisher. Amid a host of accolades (Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce Selection), it was shortlisted for a National Book Award.
But don’t be fooled. Galarza, too, has grappled with insidious forces — like what “masculinity” looks like in 21st century America and, yes, an eating disorder. In writing what he knows, he gives his characters the humanity and grace we all hope to give our teenage selves.
MORE BOOKS
Here’s a glance at a few other books VCU faculty and graduates are writing these days …
“A Darwinian Survival Guide: Hope for the Twenty-First Century” (MIT Press, 2024)
Daniel Brooks, Ph.D., and Salvatore Agosta, Ph.D.
Fate of our planet got you down? Brooks and VCU Life Sciences associate professor Agosta offer an optimistic vision, or at least a new approach, invoking survivability, not sustainability. From that premise, they discuss how best to “interact with the biosphere” (including fellow humans) so we can keep our home habitable — or, worst case, rebuild in a saner, more survivable way.
“Tales of Koehler Hollow” (Unsung Voices Books, 2024)
Naomi Hodge-Muse and Christopher A. Brooks, Ph.D.
The popular image of Appalachians is grim-faced Scotch-Irish, but African Americans have contributed to the area for generations. Brooks, a VCU anthropology professor, and Hodge-Muse bring to light one family’s story, starting with Hodge-Muse’s great-great-grandmother. Freed from enslavement, she homesteaded in southwest Virginia. From there, the authors trace her lineage of tenacity and grit, amid the larger historical context.
“Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America” (Grand Central Publishing, 2023)
Audrey Clare Farley (M.A.’11)
Identical siblings are like a living “nature vs. nurture” experiment. So in 1954, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health practically salivated when they heard about the 24-year-old Genain quadruplets, all diagnosed with schizophrenia. The notion this was just genetics at work crumbled, however, amid revelations of a horrific childhood. Farley, a VCU English alum, not only chronicles the events, but asks who the monsters are: The parents, yes, but also the scientists and a callous, exploitive public.
“Living Tidal” (Brandylane Publishers, 2024)
Sheena Jeffers (B.A.’08, B.S.’08)
Girl meets boy, girl and boy buy an old sailboat, girl and boy sail around the Caribbean for two years, with little more than a thirst for adventure and their love to sustain them — that’s the plot of this memoir by VCU English and mass communications grad Jeffers. But beyond a travelogue, Jeffers learns about herself, making it a moment for the inner journey as well.
