How to Be a Normal Person

How to Be a Normal Person (2014) TJ Klune

Gustavo Tiberius lives in Abby, Oregon and is not a a little odd.

He doesn’t really mind that much, because he is mostly content with his life.

IT WAS seven in the morning when the alarm clock belonging to Gustavo Tiberius rang and he opened his eyes. He looked up at the ceiling and thought, Today is going to be an okay day.

He’s grumpy, but there are a few people who have seen through him.

Like Lottie.

Lottie’s Lattes, a coffee shop with the most ridiculous name. He’d told Lottie as such, and she’d grinned at him and made him drink a fruit smoothie instead of his usual black coffee. It was sweet and creamy and everything about it had been terrible, so he kept his opinions on alliteration to himself.

“Thanks for coming to Lottie’s Lattes!” she shouted after him. “Where we like you a lottie!”

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered as the bell rang overhead.

And the We Three Queens.

He took the We Three Queens’ video card, charged them two bucks (even though it should have been four; he told them it was because they were regulars, and that was mostly true. It also was because he loved them deeply and didn’t know quite else how to say it.

Then, Lottie’s nephew comes to town, and everything is new and wrong and different.

“What? No. Just. Shut up. I don’t even know you.”

“Oh,” Casey said. “You will.”

“Don’t you threaten me!”

To be clear, this story is not going to be for everyone. Casey is a stoner. Gus is… Gus. There is language and frank discussion.

But it’s also hilarious.

He got into his father’s 1995 Ford Taurus. (“ Ah, what a year for the Taurus,” Pastor Tommy had said on a regular basis. “The sleek lines! The torque! The handling, my god, Gus, the way it handles! The men will fall at your feet when this car becomes yours!”) It was lovingly maintained with only 237,000 miles on it.

“Yes,” he said. “Hello. I am calling for advice.”

“Shhh,” she snapped, sounding slightly muffled. “I’ll put it on speaker, just be quiet. Did you hear what he said? He needs advice. He’s totally going to do it! Casey will be so— ahem. Hello, Gus. Nothing is going on here at all. It is just me and no one else. What sort of advice are you looking for?”

Which is what lets you get through the passages where Gus thinks about the loss of his father.

Gus wondered if normal people carried their grief like he did. He wondered if normal people carried it for the rest of their lives like he thought he would. It didn’t hurt as much as it once had, but sometimes the scar broke apart and it was all he could do to breathe through it.

If you need something to read to escape from the dumpster fire that is the world, this is lovely.

Publisher : BOATK Books
Rating: 8/10

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