Book: How I Paid For College by Marc Acito

It's 1983, and in a sleepy New Jersey community 17-year-old Edward Zanni is breezing through a carefree summer and rehearsing for his high school's production of Grease. However, the fun comes to a screeching halt when his father refuses to pay for Edward's forthcoming term at acting school.

Edward's in a bind and, proof that he's destined for a life in the arts, incapable of holding down a job. So he turns to his loyal (but immoral) friends. Disguising themselves as nuns and priests, they merrily scheme their way through embezzlement, identity theft, forgery and blackmail to get his fees. Along the way, Edward learns the value of friendship, work and how you're not really a man until you can beat up your father, metaphorically or otherwise.

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It's a wildy campy novel filled with, at times, unbelievable occurrences. I loved the era he set in the novel, as he also makes social comments on family relationships, sexuality and pop culture.

But even as a comment on the 1980's, one can also look at the novel as maybe too campish, and certainly never real. All the things that happen in the book comes from a fantasy world of TV and movies where the heroes get away with outlandish plots as the ones presented here.

But you don't read this novel for any real thoughtful commentary. It's a fun, beach read of a novel.