At Dawn

It took me a hot second to get into this book about a young man down and out on his luck, but once I did get into it, I read it in one sitting.

Stratton leaves New York life and heads to Chicago with nothing but a duffle bag and $300 in his pocket. He soon learns that achieving the American dream isn't going to be easy. Stratton is desperate for anything, anything that will help him forget his troubled past, but he soon discovers that he has to reconcile the horrible things that happened in his youth or he'll lose everything he's tried so hard to achieve.

There are some pretty good characters in the book and I particularly enjoyed getting to learn about Gene, a former Vietnam vet and Stratton's landlord. He seems a perfect elderly gentleman who I would love to have a drink with.

Overall, this book isn't quite a beach read but it is good nonetheless. Just don't expect to be in a chipper mood at the end. It's a gritty look at life, but it's real and relatable.