Bella Vista – Adam Strong (1)

I had Cliff and a racist old tyme ice cream parlor, trying to put me back together again. I told Cliff about Dad and the Dirty Hippie, about how the Mom thing went slow, then fast. About DeadbirdRedbird. I told him about how I puke when I get upset. And then he put his hand on mine. His eyes couldn’t meet mine, until they could, and he placed himself to where he could really see me. You go through your life just wanting a friend, and then you find one and you realize what you’ve been missing.

But the night didn’t end with the Swenson’s Old Tyme Ice Cream Parlor, I had to experience the whole client situation. The client, as in the people who pay money to have Cliff drive them around. The guy who sits on the other side of the partition. Once Cliff laid down the I care about you kid shtick, then he had to lay down the ground rules.

Of what I’m supposed to do and not do when a client is in the car. I was beginning to realize just how long the phrase “a while” meant. “Rule number one is all about the partition,” Cliff said. He lit another swisher. “It’s the goddamned secret weapon kid; it’s the thing people ask for.

“THIS HERE PARTITION IS COVERED in carpet, when it’s up you cannot be seen, but if it’s down and if you can see the client through the partition, then they can see you, and you cannot be seen, not once.” It sounded fishy to me. Rule number two. “When the partition is down, you crouch down, you pull up your legs, and you put your head between them.

Any other position than that and they can see you. You do that as soon as you hear the sound of the partition working.” Rule number three. “You’re gonna see some scary stuff, but know this, I’ll keep you safe. That’s a promise. We’re going to have fun, but there’ll be some stuff we gotta deal with.

This is until you start school, so we’re only talking about a few weeks, tops.” School, my god. I still had to tackle school. School was Cliff dropping me off in front of the building.

“In Bella Vista, you can’t help but fall in love with Jay, a boy with a very particular voice and a big broken heart, who’s trying to find himself—or maybe trying not to lose himself—in the middle of a very dysfunctional family. A boy whose artist mother can’t really see him and whose hippie- turned-get-rich-quick-schemer father only sees the worst in him.

When on Jay’s tenth birthday, his father whisks him off to Miami with the promise of a better life and a better father-son relationship, the adventure that finds him is nothing a reader could have expected. Written in language that slips and flows, like water rushing around rocks in a river, Bella Vista is a unique and beautiful coming of age story.”

~ Gigi Little, author of Who Killed One the Gun? “The high anxiety voice of this 80s coming-of-age story reveals the usual dramas of adolescence redefined by Jay Pershall’s audacious love for his insanely broken parents. At times absurdist, at times cruel, Bella Vista is a compulsively readable and ultimately wise story of consequence, survival, and, after all, love.”

~ Joanna Rose, author of A Small Crowd of Strangers “A gripping story, crafted by the phenomenal storyteller, Adam Strong. Bella Vista is a gorgeous, tender, coming-of-age tale, told from the inside out, through the lens of a boy with an artist’s sensibility, trapped with an angry, hollow father. From the opening pages, we’re peering around the danger corners and cheering for Jay to find his way through, to claim his voice in a world that wishes him silent.

A heart-thumping gem of a novel.” ~ Anne Gudger, author of The Fifth Chamber “Adam Strong has crafted an intimate and deeply moving story of resilience, self-discovery, and the ultimate act of survival: finding the strength and grace to forgive.” ~ Kathleen Lane, author of Pity Party and The Best Worst Thing.

“In Bella Vista, Strong delivers a raw, unflinching coming-of-age story about love, loss, and survival. As Jay, the protagonist, flees his broken home, guided only by a weary limo driver who never stopped caring, he must confront the darkness within and decide who he’s meant to become.” ~ Jenny Forrester, author of Narrow River, Wide Sky.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: f915ddfa5a47480b
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 4,592,346 bytes (4.38 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 252
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 333.29 minutes
• Total Words: 66,657
• Total Characters: 339,060
• Average Words per Page: 264.51
• Average Characters per Page: 1345.48

Most Frequent Words

dad (461), said (398), like (305), didn’t (288), mom (277), one (268), back (268), cliff (243), got (198), way (184), time (175), know (168), thing (165), see (162), around (157), hand (155), going (154), two (144), face (144), even (142), eyes (140), wasn’t (138), right (126), something (123), little (121), couldn’t (121), door (115), i’d (112), day (111), wanted (111), people (108), front (105), still (102), whole (100), dad’s (99), saw (99), first (99), knew (98), looked (96), get (95), took (95), went (93), put (91), long (91), things (91), look (90), say (87), house (87), room (87), much (87), big (86), made (86), felt (86), came (85), mom’s (84), white (79), now (78), never (78), kid (74), away (72), i’m (72), head (71), enough (70), someone (70), old (69), side (68), window (68), miami (67), next (67), it’s (67), don’t (66), pulled (65), world (63), home (63), kind (63), black (63), part (62), night (62), take (61), place (60), body (58), turned (58), tell (58), pool (58), caleb (58), life (57), light (57), let (56), school (55), looking (55), thought (55), between (55), always (55), voice (54), every (54), that’s (54), hair (54), inside (53), left (53), guy (53).

PDF Download