‘Pipeliner’ by Shawn Hartje

Pipeliner

Like most teenage lads, seventeen-year-old Jason wants to join a rock band and get a girlfriend. But the path to love and musical stardom is paved with a ton of other stuff that gets in the way – like dealing with parents, teachers and everything else that young people are faced with. When he joins a team of gas-pipe layers, our hero believes he’s taking a step in the right direction…

This is a coming of age story about a young guy, his aspirations to fame and his experiments in love, as well as the usual issues and challenges that face most of us at that age. Though it took a little while to get going, the book is an easy read, and while I thought the author spent a bit too much time describing every single person we encounter, it’s a generally enjoyable tale peppered with colourful characters. Having said that, comparing the book to thousands of similar stories, there didn’t seem to be anything new or different about it, and I was left wondering if I’d missed something. No doubt it’ll ring a few bells with folk who can still recall their teenage years, but in my case, it was a pleasant read that should have been better.