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Dec 29, 2015
Palo Alto is the debut novel by actor, director, screenwriter and artist James Franco. It is a collection of short stories surrounding a rotating cast of “troubled” teenagers who are vaguely based of Franco and his friends from when he used to attend Palo Alto High School. The book features twelve stories that are both oddly captivating and different. Franco’s diction is choppy and easy to follow: perfect for the teenage voices that he portrays through each story. Each story tackles a different aspect of adolescence. For example, in “Lockheed” a teenage girl recalls an incident of violence at a high school party, and in “I Could Kill Someone” a boy purchases a gun in the hopes of killing his bully, but instantly reflects on the bully’s own life. Franco’s commentary on these issues is refreshingly original, using the same humour and sometimes strange ideas that we see in his many films and art pieces. The book seems almost like a reflection of Franco’s childhood and a statement on the youth of California. These stories are simple and quick reads perfect for people who do not want to commit to an entire novel at a time.To sum up the overall tone of the novel, here a quote from the end of the book. “When you’re in high school everything can seem painful:either painfully boring or painfully disappointing. But after high school, you can look back on it and see that it was all experience, all vital life, and it can be used to make art."