Niagara Motel
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: November 6, 2017 9:22 PM | Last Updated: December 7, 2017
Ashley Little
Set in the early 1990s, Ashley Little's follow-up to her award-winning novel Anatomy of a Girl Gang introduces readers to unforgettable 11-year-old Tucker Malone ― the only child of a narcoleptic touring stripper ― who believes his father is Sam Malone from Cheers. He and his mother move from motel to motel until, one night in Niagara Falls, his mother is hit by a car after falling asleep in the street.
Tucker is sent to live in a youth group home where he meets Meredith, a pregnant 16-year-old with more than her fair share of family problems. They bond over slurpees and a shared love for literature and he convinces her to "borrow" a car to go to Boston to find his father.
Their cross-country search becomes an epic depiction of mid-1990s America as Tucker comes face to face with some of the most notorious criminals of the time: The Oklahoma Bomber; Lorena Bobbitt; the boys responsible for the Columbine High School massacrew; O.J. Simpson; and Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.
Told in spare, straightforward prose, Niagara Motel is a biting chronicle during the rise of mass-media in the decade that defined the MTV Generation, and the bittersweet story of a young boy forced to learn brutal lessons on his way to becoming a man. (From Arsenal Pulp Press)
From the book
I was born in a laundromat in Paris, Ontario. If you knew Gina you wouldn't think it was that weird. Gina is my mother. She says she's a dancer. What that means is she's a stripper. Sometimes she says exotic dancer if she's really comfortable with you. Sometimes she goes all the way and there's another word for that. But I'm not allowed to say it. Not when Gina's around.
From Niagara Motel by Ashley Little ©2016. Published by Arsenal Pulp Press.