THE SPECTACULAR NOW (Tim Tharp) - August 17/13

This extremely readable novel isn't exactly what I expected; I thought I'd be getting a typical story about an unlikely friendship/romance between teens, which I did get, but it's mostly about the alcoholism of the main character. I sort of saw the story ending one of two ways: either he cleans up his act and lives happily ever after, or he breaks up with her for her own good. I got the latter, but I just didn't find it satisfying. It doesn't help that Tharp ends the book on an ambiguous note; he breaks up with Aimee and gets spectacularly drunk and the book ends. I wanted to find out what happened to both characters and I found it a little frustrating that it was so open. I enjoyed the book otherwise, though, so at least there's that. *** out of ****