A review by stephen_arvidson
Palo Alto: Stories by James Franco

4.0

Set in the early 1990s, this haunting and well-written collection of interconnected stories centers around the lives of Palo Alto's more ambivalent high school students, youths wholly consumed by their own sexual frustration, self-loathing, guilt, homophobia, and unrequited love. Readers will find James Franco's lean writing style honest, raw, and reflective of the scattered thought processes of your garden-variety angst-addled teenagers struggling to find meaning in their lives. The actor/filmmaker reveals himself to be a versatile artist. Using terse language, Franco succeeds in depicting bleak and realistic situations besetting a generation enveloped by nihilism, decadence, longing and desire. These stark and tragic coming-of-age tales will linger in your mind long after you've finished them.