I once read an article by a screenwriter once wherein he describes his first attempt to write screenplay for a romantic comedy based on a relationship he'd had in college. When he finished, his friends from college all loved it but anyone who wasn't already familiar with the events on which it was based thought it was awful. His point was that sometimes you really have to have been there for a story to be any good and a successful writer needs to know when a story is funny and when a story is funny to himself. Welcome to Scranton feels to me like the latter variety. It was ok but I found just couldn't relate with it on any level. I kept thinking it would have been better if I'd been there, if I knew the characters, if it had happened to me. It wasn't bad, per se, it just didn't manage to entertain me. ( )

I wasn't sure how much I'd like this when I first started reading it, but as you get into it you see how well the characters really complement each other and the language and story together gets to be quite funny and appealing. Great read that you don't want to put down :)

Thank you also for having this in a giveaway program and giving me a chance to win and read this. Thank you Greg :) ( )

Do you like dark humor? I thought this was amazing! Somehow even with loads of foul language, disparaging remarks about women, and you name it this book has it, I think this book is great. The foul language and racial slurs are all necessary to depict the characters in the book.

The two main characters that 'Welcome to Scranton' revolves around are Henry and Ed. It is all written in first person from the viewpoint of Henry. He hates his name so you don't even know that right off. Henry has a group of male friends that he has known from way back, Jake, Mike and Ed. But the real main characters are Henry, Ed and the town of Scranton. If you look at the cover of the book, you will see a collage of the important parts of the story but you can’t figure it out just by looking at the cover.

The story is told by Henry in first person. First he tells about Ed waking up him up in the middle of the night. Ed has an apartment in the same complex and he bangs on the door at three in the morning. Ed asks him for some smokes and mentions that he took a whole bottle of pills. Henry gives him the smokes, Ed leaves and then he goes back to sleep. Then he wakes up again. He thinks about the bottle of pills that Ed took. What should he do? Take Ed to the hospital. Then he hesitates. Why, that you will learn!

There are two more parts of the story, a journey back into the past with meetings in bars with his friends, a road trip to Atlantic City and we really get to know Henry, Ed and Scranton and the rest of the group. Then we are back to the present. Henry has to make an important decision.

From the first sentence of the book with Ed banging on Henry’s door, I did not want to put ‘Welcome to Scranton” down’. The whole book is a wild ride through the past and through Scranton. I have seen some complaints in reviews that there is no plot. But there is definitely conflict. That conflict resides in Henry and he has to make a very important decision. This book is so skillfully written that all you have to do is read and you will be carried along by the story at break neck speed.

There is a trailer for this book at:
http://www.welcometoscranton.com/

I think that it would be better to see the trailer after you read the book, unless of course, you are already familiar with Scranton. The music to the trailer is perfect; it expresses the dark humor in this book to a T. The title of this book is very important because, Scranton is a main character in this book. You get to know Scranton in this book, the seamy side, the funny side and quirky side.

I recommend this book to all who love dark humor. ( )

A fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I definately recomend it!