It is 1963 in an obscure town in North Dakota, and Anthony Thrasher is languishing for a second year in eighth grade. Prematurely sophisticated, young Anthony spends too much time reading Joyce, Eliot, and Dylan Thomas, but not enough time studying the War of 1812. His sympathetic teacher, a \"modern Hester Prynne,\" offers Anthony lessons that ultimately free him from eighth grade and situate her on the cusp of the American sexual revolution. Anthony\'s restless adolescent voice is perfectly suited to De Vries\'s blend of erudite wit and playfulness - not to mention his fascination with both language and the female anatomy - and it propels the novel through theological debates and quandaries both dermatological and ethical.