It Feels So Good When I Stop by Joe Pernice

“One can accept, reluctantly, Pernice’s apparently inexhaustible ability to knock out brilliant three-minute pop songs….But now it turns out he can write fiction too, and so envy and bitterness become unavoidable.”
— Nick Hornby, in The Believer

“If Charles Bukowski had grown up in the eighties and listened to a lot of indie rock, he might have sounded a lot like Joe Pernice. It Feels So Good When I Stop is a hard-boiled slacker chronicle of heartbreak and self-renewal, as smart as it is funny, written in one of the most arresting voices I’ve come across in a long time.”
— Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher

“Observed with impeccable clarity, It Feels So Good When I Stop is a very funny, profoundly human novel, perfectly attuned to the quotidian grotesque of twenty-first-century America.”
— William Gibson, author of Spook Country

“A hilarious, moving and deep novel…Joe Pernice tells it true.”
— George Pelecanos, author of Drama City and The Night Gardener

“Quite a remarkable piece of writing. Acidic, profane, and easily one of the most lethal and unrelentingly hilarious books that I have ever read.”
— Jonathan Poneman, President, Sub Pop Records

From the moment he first met Jocelyn, he knew he would either marry her or destroy his life trying. He never imagined he might manage to do both.

It’s 1996, and our unlikely hero, a talented but floundering musician-turned-waiter has just bolted from his marriage in New York the day after the wedding. Without a word—save for a note left on the floor of the honeymoon suite that says only “I’m sorry”—he flees to Cape Cod, where his only commitments are a case of Miller High Life and a pack of Marlboro reds. He’s spent his post-college years resisting the responsibilities and banalities of adult life—while Jocelyn, on the other hand, was all ambition and drive—and now, at twenty-five, he finds himself frozen between freedom and commitment, apathy and ardor, adolescence and adulthood. He’s come to Cape Cod in search of something—but what, he’s not quite sure yet. Crashing at the house left vacant by his sister and her husband’s pending divorce, he finds himself replaying scenes from his volatile relationship with the fiery, sharp-witted, and histrionic Jocelyn. But he’s not long with his thoughts—at the insistence of his soon-to-be ex-brother-in-law, he reluctantly agrees to look after his two-year-old nephew.  Watching over the boy proves to be more enjoyable than he expected, and together, the pair catches the attention of Marie, a sad-eyed neighbor struggling with the loss of her own son. When Marie, whose mourning drives her to bouts of heavy drinking and erratic behavior, recruits him to help her in the making of a documentary about her son, an unexpected bond begins to form. Compelled by an unfamiliar desire to care for this damaged but intriguing woman, our hero finds himself in foreign territory, where being truly needed by another human being just might be the thing to finally jolt him awake.

From the highly celebrated singer and songwriter Joe Pernice, IT FEELS SO GOOD WHEN I STOP (Riverhead; Publication Date: August 6, 2009; ISBN: 978-1-59448-874-0; Price: $25.95) is a pitch-perfect rendering of modern-day youth on the cusp of latent adulthood. The genius behind the indie favorite The Pernice Brothers, whose six albums have been met with great critical and popular acclaim, Pernice has become known for his masterful, “gut-grasping” lyrics (Magnet) and captivating storytelling. Pernice has proved his ability to take these talents to the page, first with his 2003 novella, Meat is Murder—part of the 33 1/3 series from Continuum—and now here. Upon the publication of Meat is Murder, The Boston Weekly Dig wrote, “Pernice hits his mark. The well-developed sense of character, plot and pacing shows that he has serious promise as a novelist.” Now, with It Feels So Good When I Stop, Pernice proves them right, and the result is a debut novel that is both endlessly engaging and unexpectedly affecting. Told through the unmistakable, eminently likeable, and irreverently funny voice of a twenty-five-year-old malingerer, here is a truly modern coming-of-age story, about a young man learning to love and commit on his own terms.