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Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same

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UNBRIDLED ALOUD

Listen to a podcast aired by KNOM 780 AM 96.1FM about author Mattox Roesch and Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same

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WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:

 
One of BOOKLIST Editor’s Choice Best Adult Books
                  for Young Adults, 2009


“Debut author Mattox Roesch has tremendous talent and the ability to create characters who leap off the page.  This story is about Cesar, a young LA gangbanger, and his mother who has decided to move herself and her son back to the small Alaskan community that she was born in and ran away from 20 years ago.  There Cesar’s life becomes entwined in his ebullient cousin Go-Boy’s wild schemes for a new philosophy of living and his own religion based on the Alaskan, feminine, Jesus.  The author actually lives in the town that this story is set in, so his portrait of small village Alaskan life sings with detail and charm.  This glimpse of life in a far off place, family, community, and starting over is written with a fresh and vibrant voice that is unforgettable.”—Jackie Blem, Tattered Cover


“Thoughtful…[Roesch] delivers.”— The New York Times Book Review


“Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same” is the coming-of-age story of a young transplant to the village and explores the painful transition from adolescence to adulthood, the differences between religious and spiritual truths, and the nature of mental illness. It also takes up that age-old question of whether or not the people who we think are crazy might be the sanest among us. It’s an ambitious project, and Roesch handles it ably….This is a tightly written, well thought out book…memorable.”—

Fairbanks Daily Miner


“What makes this book good is its subtle rendering of village life as a web of relationships that sustain individual and community in a harsh environment. Yet because the characters are so well imagined, it does so without becoming a sociological diorama . . . “Same-Same” is a quirky and endearing first novel.” —The Star Tribune

 


The deep and universal desire for connectedness is explored here in stunningly original ways that speak to us all. Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same is an exciting debut by one of America’s finest young writers.

Robert Olen Butler

Roesch’s offbeat debut is set in Unalakleet, Alaska, population 700, a destination that seems like the end of the world for teenage L.A. gang member Cesar Stone, uprooted by his mother after his older brother catches a murder conviction and a life sentence….Roesch’s compelling story, exotic setting and eccentric characters make this coming-of-age tale a fresh, welcome read.

Publisher's Weekly

MATTOX ROESCH

SOMETIMES WE’RE ALWAYS REAL SAME-SAME

He’s in the middle of nowhere, Alaska, because his Eskimo mother has moved home, and Cesar, a seventeen-year-old former gang banger, is convinced that he’s just biding his time ‘til he can get back to LA. His charmingly offbeat cousin, Go-boy, is equally convinced that Cesar will stay. And so they set a wager. If Cesar is still in Unalakleet in a year, he has to get a copy of Go-boy’s Eskimo Jesus tattoo.

Go-boy, who recently dropped out of college, believes wholeheartedly that he is part of a Good World conspiracy. At first Cesar considers Go-boy half crazy, but over time in this village, with his father absent and his brother in jail for murder, Cesar begins to see the beauty and hope Go-boy represents. The choice.

This is a novel about a different Alaska than many of us have read about in the past, about a different kind of wilderness and survival. As Cesar (who later assumes his Eskimo name, Atausiq) becomes connected to the community and to Go-boy, the imprint he bears isn’t Go-boy’s tattoo but the indelible mark of Go-boy’s heart and philosophy, a philosophy of hope that emphasizes our similarities to one another as well as a shared sense of community, regardless of place. As Go-boy says to Cesar, “Sometimes we’re always real same-same.”

BOOK INFORMATION

$15.95 / $18.95 Can | Fiction Paperback | 6x9 | 336 pages

September 2009

ISBN: 978-1-932961-87-4 | Carton Quantity: 24

EISBN: 978-1-93607-107-4

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READ EXCERPT

Go parks his car in the middle of the concrete bridge again. This time we are facing the village.  “If you stay here longer than a year, you have to change your first name.”
“Change it?”
“To your Eskimo name,” Go says.
“But I don’t want an Eskimo name.” I wonder if Eskimo names are the kind of thing that Go can just hand out without talking to anyone.  It seems like something parents should decide, like something Mom should come up with. A name is such a permanent thing. A name makes the person almost as much as the person makes the name. And as we sit in Go’s car on the bridge, I think about how even though I don’t like the name Cesar, it was given to me by Pop, and so I accept it and can’t fathom changing it.

A work truck rolls onto the bridge, maybe heading out of town to the new jail. The guy looks like an engineer from Anchorage. He pulls alongside us, slow, trying to pass, then stops. There are just a few inches between our vehicles. The guy folds in his side mirror.  He rolls down his window, and Go, seeing this, rolls down his.
“You got trouble?”
Go-boy says, “No, we’re just waiting.” The guy looks up and down the slough for signs of something to wait for. I look with him. He glances around the open fields in front of his truck, then he turns in his seat and looks back at the village. There is nothing happening anywhere. He asks, “For what?” I am wondering the same thing. Go stares through the windshield, straight down the road and back into town, maybe running through a list of possible names to give me, maybe not. A kid on a bike rolls across the gravel where it curves between two homes.  Go turns back to the guy in his truck, says, “We’re waiting to find out.”

THE AUTHOR

Mattox Roesch

Mattox Roesch lived in Minneapolis for ten years where he played drums in an indie rock band, designed and peddled skateboards, and founded a T-shirt printing business. His award-winning fiction has appeared in numerous magazines, including The Missouri Review. He and his wife now live in Unalakleet, Alaska.  Author Photo by Tera Cunningham.

AUTHOR LINKS

Listen to Mattox Roesch Interview on MPR (Minnesota Public Radio)

Mattox Roesch on Twitter

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