Joe College is Tom Perrotta's warmest and funniest fiction yet, a comic journey into the dark side of love, higher education and food service. For many college students, Spring Break means fun and sun in Florida. For Danny, a Yale junior, it means two weeks behind the wheel of the Roach Coach, his father's lunch truck, which plies the parking lots of office parks in central New Jersey. But Danny can use the time behind the coffee urn to try and make sense of a love life that's gotten a little complicated. There's loyal and patient hometown honey Cindy and her recently dropped bombshell to contend with. And there's also lissome Polly back in New Haven--with her shifting moods, perfect thrift store dresses and inconvenient liaison with a dashing professor. If girl problems aren't enough, there's the constant menace of the Lunch Monsters, a group of thugs who think Danny has planted the Roach Coach in their territory. “An overwhelmingly pleasing book” ― The New York Times “An absorbing, fleshed-out portrait of an American male edging toward adulthood by crossing seemingly rigid social boundaries.” ― The New York Times Book Review “Companionable and humane, lighthearted and surprisingly touching.” ― Newsweek “Perrotta transforms eighties nostalgia into art.” ― Entertainment Weekly For many college students, Spring Break means fun and sun in Florida. For Danny, a Yale junior, it means two weeks behind the wheel of the Roach Coach, his father's lunch truck, which plies the parking lots of office parks in central New Jersey. But Danny can use the time behind the coffee urn to try and make sense of a love life that's gotten a little complicated. There's loyal and patient hometown honey Cindy and her recently dropped bombshell to contend with. And there's also lissome Polly back in New Haven--with her shifting moods, perfect thrift store dresses and inconvenient liaison with a dashing professor. If girl problems aren't enough, there's the constant menace of the Lunch Monsters, a group of thugs who think Danny has planted the Roach Coach in their territory. JOE COLLEGE is Tom Perrotta's warmest and funniest fiction yet, a comic journey into the dark side of love, higher education and food service. For many college students, Spring Break means fun and sun in Florida. For Danny, a Yale junior, it means two weeks behind the wheel of the Roach Coach, his father's lunch truck, which plies the parking lots of office parks in central New Jersey. But Danny can use the time behind the coffee urn to try and make sense of a love life that's gotten a little complicated. There's loyal and patient hometown honey Cindy and her recently dropped bombshell to contend with. And there's also lissome Polly back in New Haven--with her shifting moods, perfect thrift store dresses and inconvenient liaison with a dashing professor. If girl problems aren't enough, there's the constant menace of the Lunch Monsters, a group of thugs who think Danny has planted the Roach Coach in their territory. JOE COLLEGE is Tom Perrotta's warmest and funniest fiction yet, a comic journey into the dark side of love, higher education and food service. Tom Perrotta is the author of several works of fiction : Bad Haircut , The Wishbones, Election , and the New York Times bestselling Joe College and Little Children . Election and Little Children were made into critically acclaimed movies. The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher were both adapted into HBO series. He lives outside of Boston. Joe College A Novel By Tom Perrotta St. Martin's Griffin Copyright © 2006 Tom Perrotta All right reserved. ISBN: 9780312361785 Joe College part one pencil dicks All through that winter and into the spring, when our Tuesday- and Thursday-night dinner shifts were done, Matt and I would sit at the long table near the salad bar and plan his end-of-the-year party, our voices echoing importantly in the cavernous wood-panelled dining hall."What do you think?" he asked. "We gonna need more than two kegs?""Depends, I guess. How many people are coming?""A lot." Matt fixed me with those weirdly translucent blue eyes of his, eyes that sometimes made me think I was looking straight into his head. "I'm just gonna plaster the campus with signs that say, 'Party at Matt's.' As far as I'm concerned, the whole school's invited, plus all of Jessica's friends from Columbia. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple hundred people show up.""A couple hundred? Your landlord's gonna freak.""I talked to him. He's cool about it.""Cool about a couple hundred people?" I hadn't had much experience with landlords, having lived only at home and in dorms for the first twenty years of my life, but even I had enough sense to be skeptical of this claim."Lance is a party guy. Two glasses of grain alcohol and he'll be sliding naked down the banister to answer the door.""Grain alcohol? Who said anything about grain alcohol?""You can't have a really good party without it. Not