48 Shades Of Brown:
 a play

Philip Dean (based on novel by Nick Earls)

Currency Press 2001

112p pbk $15.95

 0-86819-652-5

And thanks, Mum. Thanks for dumping me here and leaving me to deal with all this when I've got my final year of school to worry about. It's not fair. I'm never going to fit in here!

And why should he? Dan's parents are in Geneva, he's living with his somewhat eccentric, but cool, 22 year old, bass playing aunt. His best friend is obsessed with girls and sex, and nobody will take him seriously. This is just the typical life for an almost seventeen-year-old male. 

Through Dan's eyes we're taken on a twisting, turning, roller coaster ride of what it's like to be 'not quite old enough, but old enough to know it.' Who ever said it was easy? Suddenly thrown into this alien, adult environment, Dan has to grow up fast.  What are you supposed to do when your Mum's a thousand miles away and you need to use the washing machine? Or how about when you find out your aunt has a crush on the same person you do?  Dan discovers how to deal with girls, school, questions about sexual orientation, hormones, and washing machines? But it's not all uphill, the open minded acceptance of the normal and slightly abnormal, that Dan receives from his Aunt Jacq and house mate Naomi, make things a lot easier. 

Light-hearted, funny, and with a definite twist of insanity, this is a must read for anyone who missed the lesson on how to live life.