Sam Bracey

Roommates Sam Bracey

In "Roommates," Sam Bracey provides both a humorous and harrowing account of his living together with others: sometimes a bastion of comfort, other times, a necessary evil, who, for most like him, are young and just trying to survive. Realms of brotherhood can instantly turn into hell-pits of despair when someone isn't pulling their weight. The electric bill becomes a point of contention, especially when winter strikes and the amounts skyrocket. Anyone who has encountered the horrendous prospect of getting an unwieldy couch through a twisting stairwell will experience chilling flashbacks within these pages. And don't worry, the persistent struggle with soul-crushing, menial jobs attended by menacing hangovers is adequately covered; sometimes just making it through the day is a testament of the pure will to see another morning. Drugs, drinking and general mayhem run rampant throughout the daily regimen of these formative lives lived in the haze of the ragged day-to-day. Enduring roommates with mad hallucinations in the middle of the night; the worship of a half-thousand-dollar bong and falling through a floor during a raucous party and all the pitfalls and glories of being in a band are just some of the crazed circumstances entertained here. A cross-country sojourn from Milwaukee to San Francisco, searching for better luck in the golden land provides for a wondrous trek across the West; yet ultimately serves only to illuminate that wherever you are - there you are. From the fallen glory of the California sun, it's back to Milwaukee and the frigid cold of a merciless winter and the grind that never left. Throughout, Bracey finds poignancy in common experience, turning the everyday act of just getting by into a noble quest for something better in life, only to find out that sometimes it's the little things that matter the most. Ultimately, he finds not only his final roommate, but the true definition of home. But what a heck of a ride to get there...-Mark Borchardt