A Fool and a Whore
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Stuck somewhere between Boomers and Millennials, a Generation-Whatever-Letter tries to kill himself four times, and then finds redemption via conversations with best friends. Most people don’t get such chances. They never discuss these things “in real life.” Usually, it’s too late.
Trey Ciuri describes himself as a fool and a whore, which he translates as “a whole-life-is-f_cked feeling.” He’s constantly on the move from one stint to another — the Air Force, Peace Corps, as a fireman, then a teacher and into the Foreign Service. He has four core friends: Wade, an Air Force Academy partner in crime; his high school best friend Tony; and pals Reggie and Slim. He even has some love interests: his friend Linda, whose longing for Trey exceeds his; his infatuation with Prudence, a year-older school friend with Cystic Fibrosis; and Millie, the girl he eventually asks to marry. But for all of that, Trey keeps falling into a “death spiral”: “When it hits, a darkness overcomes me … it changes life from an intriguing labyrinth with many paths into the linear desire to die. I am unable to please anyone, and I am disgusted to see myself.”
A Fool and a Whore is a character study of a decent but flawed young man that unfolds through conversations between Trey and his friends. The narrative moves as Trey moves, from place to place, job to job and friend to friend. At times funny and relatable, and at others tragic and heartbreaking, it is an engaging whirlwind of personalities, ideas and beliefs. We experience his angst, his phobias, his beauty — and at the same time his take on the world, on society and the machinations of one’s inner self.
Learn more in our review here.
