Book Review: 'Joe College' (2012)

Revealing the inner workings of a Roach Coach — those silver lunch trucks that dot the parking lots of construction sites and office parks across America — is just one of the delights of Joe College. The author of the novel Election has graduated from a suburban high school and gone to college — Yale, class of 1983 — and so has his working-class hero Danny. Though the plot contains little drama not found in an episode of 90210 (multiple love triangles, Mafia henchmen, drunken parties), Joe's readers will revel in Tom Perrotta's gift for the telling detail. With Danny's flashback to a battle of the bands, his hilarious, ecstatic dance to ''Pump It Up,'' and an account of the highlighting strategies of undergrads, Perrotta transforms '80s nostalgia into art. A-