Getting Huge
published by Guernica Editions, 2023
This often-comic novel is for all who’ve worked with the wrong people in the wrong place, and ached to escape—to start something new and find a sense of belonging.
What begins as backyard diversion swells into an absurd obsession: to grow the world’s largest pumpkin and, with the help of an entrepreneur friend, build a pumpkin empire to make everything from snacks to toilet paper. All to win Reverend John Crackstone fame and fortune (and perhaps the affection of an alluring neighbor). John Crackstone sees his pumpkins, especially the giant named Schwartz, as his shot at greatness. And it becomes his chance to flip the tables on his affluent and perpetually disappointed deacons.
While often comic, Getting Huge resonates with the Great Resignation and quiet quitting, as it shows how the pursuit of other people’s goals and ideas of success cloud judgment. Until we are jolted into clarity and head for the hills.
Follow John Crackstone’s eight-month adventure from Easter morning to Christmas Eve in a stumbling pursuit of success and sense of belonging.
Coming April 2023: Getting Huge
This romp of a novel is for all who have worked with the wrong people in the wrong place. Beaten down by his affluent and perpetually disappointed deacons, six-foot-eleven Reverend John Crackstone finally cracks. What begins as backyard diversion swells into an absurd obsession: to grow the world’s largest pumpkin and to build a pumpkin empire that wins him fame and fortune (as well as his deacon-neighbor’s wife). While often comic, Getting Huge is also a cautionary tale for our times where the pursuit of ill-defined success overrides judgment—until we are jolted into clarity and head for the hills.
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Praise for GETTING HUGE:
In Getting Huge, John Young explores both existential and moral issues in a way that’s humorous, entertaining, and ultimately moving. Bottom line, it’s a terrific yarn well told.
A provocative and hilarious novel about the meandering that is essential to finding our way in the world—and to finding ourselves.
In GETTING HUGE, Young has crafted a hilarious and relatable tale of one man’s quest to grow the ultimate prize pumpkin. But as Crackstone’s obsession with pumpkin growing grows, so too does the underlying emotional resonance of the novel. Despite serious undertones, GETTING HUGE is foremost a highly entertaining read.
Young deftly shows how, in the wrong soil, all of us can grow into monstrous versions of ourselves. His eye for detail, humor, and good will keep the pages turning fast.
Getting Huge is a beautifully written tour de force of wit and insight into the human condition that deserves the widest possible audience.
Patricia Averbach, author of the novels Resurrecting Rain and Dreams of Drowning (2024)
An impressive creation with a singular voice that blends the serious and playful. With Getting Huge, Young reveals himself to be a true romantic. It’s a terrific read.
Fire in the Field
published by Golden Antelope Press
In sixteen short stories, John Young’s memorable characters face ethical dilemmas that compel us to ask what shapes us. Education? Talent? Impulse? Family? Money? Need for approval? Most of the stories are set in the fictional town of Nema, Indiana, others in New England. A once-honest antique dealer teaches himself to craft high-quality fakes. A struggling minister in an affluent community absurdly obsesses over his giant pumpkin. Young’s protagonists range from observant nine-year-olds to hyper-competitive teens, from working-class dreamers to privileged executives rationalizing compromises. A few face public humiliation, a few die, others reinvent themselves. In two of the strongest stories, young women face painful life-and-death decisions, with uncertain but revelatory conclusions. As one critic wrote: “The stories are well plotted and engrossing, the characters interesting, and the writing stunning.”
Fire in the Field
In sixteen stories, John Young’s memorable characters face ethical dilemmas that compel us to ask what shapes us. Education? Talent? Impulse? Family? Money? Need for approval? Most of the stories are set in the fictional town of Nema, Indiana, others in New England. A once-honest antique dealer teaches himself to craft high-quality fakes. A struggling minister in an affluent community absurdly obsesses over his giant pumpkin. Young’s protagonists range from observant nine-year-olds to hyper-competitive teens, from working-class dreamers to privileged executives rationalizing compromises. A few face public humiliation, a few die, others reinvent themselves. In two of the strongest stories, young women face painful life-and-death decisions, with uncertain but revelatory conclusions. As one critic wrote: “The stories are well plotted and engrossing, the characters interesting, and the writing stunning.”
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Praise for Fire in the Field:
An elegant, wry, wise, witty collection that deserves a place among the best work being produced today. Young is a writer who knows his craft and deserves the attention of a wide audience.
As one story progresses to the next, Young’s deceptively simple voice evolves, and the stories deepen shockingly—as if fate has caught us, and Young himself, in the best hopes of literature.
What sets these exquisitely crafted stories apart is John Young’s keen sense of place and his ability to make you feel you are there. Not just physical places, but states of mind too.
I said Let me read a few minutes of these stories before I start dinner. At midnight I was still crying, laughing, and fond of Young’s ability to take me with him. Unique turns of phrase add as much impact as his uncanny understanding of who we are.
When the Coin in the Air
published by Golden Antelope Press
In this powerful coming of age novel, Jason Blake, like most boys, wants to please his father and older brother. But this erratic father and hyper-competitive brother challenge beyond the norm. To find his way, Jason tries on different roles: schoolyard bully, football player, actor, student. At 20 Jason escapes his Midwest home and seeks independence and adventure: first to Cape Cod, later in Europe. Each adventure takes Jason farther from his father and brother. Each brings him closer to finding himself. When he returns home, the world as he knew it explodes and Jason risks all to protect his mother from his violent father. The dramatic and unforgettable course of events changes the lives in this family forever. And they promise to change the reader too.
When the Coin is in the Air
Like most boys, Jason Blake wants to please his father and older brother. But this erratic father and hyper-competitive brother challenge beyond the norm. To find his way, Jason tries on different roles: schoolyard bully, football player, actor, student. At 20 Jason escapes his Midwest home and seeks independence and adventure: first to Cape Cod, later in Europe. Each adventure takes Jason farther from his father and brother. Each brings him closer to finding himself. When he returns home, the world as he knew it explodes and Jason risks all to protect his mother from his violent father. The dramatic and unforgettable course of events changes the lives in this family forever. And they promise to change the reader too.
Order When the Coin is in the Air Today
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Praise for When the Coin is in the Air :
“It is a rare coming-of-age-novel that strikes an elegiac tone—the trembling anticipation of youth, a decidedly modern hero’s journey, in combination with a grief-struck plunge into conscience—but John Young pulls it off. This novel, like its main character, makes its way from early promise to settled accomplishment, from a staggering opening to a quiet self-acceptance that seems wholly earned—and leaves a reader grateful.”
“I loved John Young’s wise and moving novel. A young man is forced to navigate the difficult choices of early adulthood while protecting his own life and his mother’s from a violent, abusive father. Reminiscent of the novels of Pat Conroy, When the Coin is in the Air explores the complexities of the pull between duty and self-determination, tempered by love.”
“John Young’s debut novel—beautifully written and imaginatively structured—is a very moving story in which he has the tone pitch-perfect. It’s hard to write about ‘I love you’ versus ‘I’ll kill you’ when the characters are intimates. Yet, there it is on page 207, that scene will be indelible in my mind.”
“When the Coin is in the Air is a riveting story of adversity, destruction and transcendence. John Young weaves a gritty but ultimately uplifting tale, sure to speak to anyone who has wrestled with demons. From the start, Young’s debut novel will grab you, and it won’t let you go.”
“An abusive father keeps his son—and the reader—in suspense in When the Coin is in the Air, a well-told coming -of age tale.”
“I loved John Young’s wise and moving novel. A young man is forced to navigate the difficult choices of early adulthood while protecting his own life and his mother’s from a violent, abusive father. Reminiscent of the novels of Pat Conroy, When the Coin is in the Air explores the complexities of the pull between duty and self-determination, tempered by love.”
What’s next? John is excited that his second novel, and third book, Getting Huge, was selected for publication by Guernica Editions, one of the top independent publishers in Canada with international distribution. It’s a semi-comic, literary novel about Reverend John Crackstone’s career crisis and how it leads him to try to grow the world’s largest pumpkin. First sentence: “My deacons saw Easter as a business opportunity.” And so begins a broken hero’s journey… John is also hard at work on a third novel.
About John
Born and raised beyond the suburbs in Indianapolis, John Young graduated from Indiana University and earned an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College, Boston. He is the author of three books, the novels: Getting Huge and When the Coin is in the Air as well as Fire in the Field and Other Stories.
Young also taught English at the high school and college levels and spent many years in advertising as a copywriter and creative director mostly in Boston. He and his teams won more than 250 awards for creative excellence.
He spent 20 years in Beverly, Mass. and now lives with his wife and two kids in Cincinnati, Ohio.