JULIAN DICKERSON AND THE HIGHER UPS

In Ferrone’s comic novel, a short-statured teacher attempts to reinvent his life following his divorce.

Five-foot-two Julian Leon Rainflower Dickerson was born two months prematurely on a commune (in a hot tub), which explains, in part, his small proportions. By the time he was a teenager, the straitlaced Julian was fed up enough with his hippie parents to go live with his grandparents. He now works as an English teacher at a New England prep school and finds himself unhappily married to a woman who cruelly insists on wearing high heels. His only friends are his large black Lab, Barcus, and his lesbian colleague, Lois Coronetti Carson, who teaches gym. His balanced life becomes upset by the dual intrusions of his wife, Amanda, who demands a divorce, and his most flirtatious student, the precocious Donna Capucci, who seeks his attention outside of class. When a bus crash during a field trip lands Julian in the hospital, co-chaperone Lois comes up with a plan to sue the prep school and walk away with a large settlement. (The two also move into their favorite bar after losing their jobs.) Will this finally be Julian’s opportunity to get out from under the “higher ups” who have long dominated his life, or is he about to fly too close to the sun? Ferrone’s humor is dark and dry, as here when Julian agrees to meet with a lawyer about suing the school (largely to counterbalance his divorce woes): “Their appointment happened to fall on the same day that he received a call from his divorce attorney informing him that Amanda had sold the house to her mother for ten dollars and had expressed a willingness to split the proceeds with Julian despite the fact that she was under no legal obligation to do so.” Despite the book’s surface cynicism, the colorful assortment of allies Julian draws to him provides the comic story with an earnest heart.

A humorous ode to the value of community in fending off the world’s cruelties.