Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen

I'm up to book... 15? 16? of my pile of 33. I got started on Deadline this morning and finished Jerk, California yesterday evening.

Jerk, California is about this guy Sam, who when he turned 6, found that he inherited Tourette's syndrome from his father who died when he was a baby. His stepfather can't stand that his stepson is twitchy and as a result, can barely stand him.

As a result of the Tourette's, Sam gets twitches and tics, he'll jerk, his shoulders jump and his hands will clench and unclench. Sometimes he'll even blurt out stuff that he didn't intend to say, all involuntarily. Sure, if he thinks about it and really focuses, he can stay still for a few minutes, but it hardly ever lasts long.

A side-effect is that he gets teased a lot in school. He's considered a freak, an outcast, and a jerk because he can't control himself. He goes through his life with the realization that no one will ever accept him no matter what he does.

Fast forward to graduation day. His tics and outbursts end up making him a fool out of himself. Someone sitting behind him was whispering things into his ear and he couldn't help but blurt out "additions" to the speech that was being said. It came time for him to walk up to the podium and recieve his diploma, but he was so humiliated that he ran away. He runs all the way to a garden, where he meets George who doesn't appear to really care about or notice his twitches. He just sees Sam for who he is; a man named Jack who's got to start following his father's footsteps.

Unfortunately Sam trusts his stepfather who fed him a lot of garbage about his real dad, saying he left his mom in a snowstorm and his car was found wrapped around a telephone pole with another woman and a lot of beer.

Can George (who was friends with Sam's dad) show him the truth? Will Sam let him? Will he accept that his name wasn't Sam in the first place? And why exactly was his real dad out in a major snowstorm 18 years ago? Will Sam (or Jack) ever find someone out there who doesn't mind the twitches and tics? Why was his named changed from Jack to Sam?

I'll leave you to figure that out. Don't worry, I didn't reveal much of it. Maybe a couple chapters of 50 or so.

Overall, it's a really good story about finding who you are, the importance of a name, and realizing that even if there is something that makes you not quite perfect (like Tourette's syndrome), someone out there will accept you for your personality and not reject you for twitching.

Thanks for listening. If you read it, let me know what you think. And some feedback is most appreciated, I need to know stuff like... Am I telling too much? Am I leaving too much out? Suggestions? Comments?

Til tomorrow!

-Kj