Fireworks Every Night: A Novel (Hardcover)
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Description
A young woman trapped in a deeply dysfunctional family in the seedy wilds of 1990s South Florida has to make a choice—save her family, or save herself—in this “riveting” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) novel from the acclaimed author of Lay the Favorite.
“Marvelous . . . a hopelessly funny, rueful account of [a] hair-raising childhood . . . a true heroine for tough times.”—People (Book of the Week)
“Florida, we got it all. Motor sports, ribs, beer. You can drive on the sand right on up to the ocean. Fireworks every night.”
That's how twelve-year-old C.C.’s father, who named her after his beloved Canadian Club whiskey, describes the appeal of their new home. The man is a born grifter, a used-car salesman who burned down his dealership in southern Ohio for enough insurance money to set up a life for himself, his wife, and his two young daughters in a place he picked largely at random, because the living seemed easy.
C.C.’s mother is thirty-five going on seventeen, a housewife who just wants to drive a Mustang and hang out at the mall. C.C.’s sister goes from being a sweet, cheerful pre-teen to having a full-on drug addiction and listening only to heavy metal, after enduring forms of abuse within her family. In the midst of this chaos, C.C. is trying to stay afloat and make it out—to achieve some semblance of a stable life in America while coming up against the structural and cultural challenges of growing up in poverty.
This tumultuous coming-of-age novel features an unforgettable protagonist, a character who narrates her life story with dark comedy and compassion for her family, even as she is failed by them. Those failures—and her self-taught methods for succeeding anyway—are the backbone of this surprisingly poignant story about hard bargains, family loyalties, and the grit of a woman determined to create a better life for herself than the one she was born into.
About the Author
Beth Raymer is the author of Lay the Favorite, a memoir about her years in Las Vegas and her work in the sports-betting industry, which was made into a feature film directed by Stephen Frears and starring Rebecca Hall and Bruce Willis. She received an M.F.A. from Columbia University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship. Her journalism has been published in The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine. This is her first novel.
Praise For…
“It’s a hopelessly funny, rueful account of C.C.’s hair-raising childhood . . . Surrounded by a family in free fall, C.C. becomes first a teen basketball star and ultimately a true heroine for tough times.”—People
“A riveting coming-of-age story about survival, poverty, and familial love. . . . it captures the vibe of ’90s-era Florida in all its sticky, kitschy glory.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Raymer balances the sadness of her story with terrific humor, deep compassion, and beautiful writing about the natural world—which makes it perfect for cracking open at the end of a long hike.”—Oprah Daily
“Equal parts hilarious and painful.”—Newsday
“Fireworks Every Night is sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious and always feels incredibly vivid and lived-in.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“A bittersweet celebration of survival.”—Associated Press
“With raw humor and even more raw pain, Beth Raymer’s Fireworks Every Night alchemizes the ubiquitous Florida Man headlines into a powerful, humane family portrait. Every absurdity somehow made me believe in these characters more deeply, and I never wanted their story to end.”—Xhenet Aliu, author of Brass
“Fireworks Every Night is electric . . . Its honest, elegant look at money, identity, and desire in America powers a story that refuses to relent until the very end. Every sentence absolutely glimmers.”—Kayla Rae Whitaker, author of The Animators
“Beth Raymer is the real deal, and her first novel is a knockout. With wisdom, soul, and dry crackling wit, she reports from the swampy, debt-burdened places most Americans live but rarely see portrayed. I’ll be thinking about this gorgeous book for a long time.”—Jim Gavin, creator of Lodge 49 and author of Middle Men
“Raymer’s first novel crackles with life and energy. Each line catapults the story forward—a meteor of hilarity and heartbreak—so much so that I got to page 20 and flipped back to the beginning just for the pleasure of re-reading it.”—Leigh Newman, author of Nobody Gets Out Alive
“I read Raymer’s novel in a state of giddy awe, like watching someone launching bottle rockets in the dark at close range and exploding in laughter, a dangerous shower of sparks illuminating a deeply dysfunctional family cruising toward disaster in a brand-new car.”—Elissa Schappell, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Birth
“Nineties Florida deserves a neon talent, and that’s what Raymer offers—pyrotechnical brilliance and a book of wit and heat.”—Darin Strauss, author of The Queen of Tuesday
“This unsparing version of the modern American tragedy is more fun to read than can possibly be right.”—Kirkus Reviews, (starred review)
“Raymer impresses with heart-rending characters and clear-eyed exploration of class differences. . . . There’s a great deal of life on the page.”—Publishers Weekly