In "None of the Above" by Michael Cocchiarale, a story spanning the years 1980 to 2007, about Increase Alt, a Midwesterner coming of age during tumultuous times for both himself and the nation.
Throughout grade school, high school, and college, his energies become more and more directed toward his own pursuits - the study of literature, the attempt to secure a girlfriend, the forging and maintaining of relationships with his male peers. Events happening in the world, in the country, and in his hometown of Cleveland - a Reagan-Carter presidential debate, the Iran Contra scandal, the AIDS epidemic, the first Gulf War - become important only when they threaten to pull him out of his comfort zone. As a highly-educated adult, he returns to
The Town of his birth to discover he still has much to learn, as both personal trials and traumas in the country (and world) put his maturity to the test.
Michael Cocchiarale is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Widener University. He is the author of two short story collections - Still Time (Fomite, 2012) and Here Is Ware (Fomite, 2018).
"None of the Above" is available directly from the publisher and all major retailers. Ingram Book Group distributes the title to the market.
