A Brief Review of Tom Perotta's "Ghost Town" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - October 23, 2026 - Ghost Town (2026) is a coming-of-age story that left me weepy-eyed and pining for the good old days of innocence. Tom Perrotta, The New York Times best-selling author of The Leftovers, is close to my age, so when he wrote about what life was like in the early to mid-1970s for a young boy, he nailed it. But not only that—the New Jersey setting of Ghost Town is situated less than 100 miles from where I grew up in Philadelphia. The only thing I didn’t like about the book is its title. If I didn’t read the back cover, I would’ve left it on the library shelf. Thank goodness I didn’t.

The format and narrative of Ghost Town reminded me of what a script from ABC’s The Wonder Years (1988-1993) might’ve looked like since the story of 12-year-old Jimmy is told through his older self. Perrotta’s clever novel follows Jimmy, the only son in a middle-class family of four, who, during his last year of junior high, must deal with tragedy, bigotry, and peer pressure, as well as the normal teenage angst one can expect from budding puberty. To disclose more about the story would only ruin it for those who haven’t read it. Suffice to say I laughed out loud, wiped away a few tears, and nodded knowingly.

If J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye were to have a baby with one of John Hughes’ movies from the 1980s, say Sixteen Candles (1984) or The Breakfast Club (1985), or with Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me (1986)—the literary offspring would have the look and feel of Tom Perrotta’s Ghost Story. I simply can’t imagine anyone (at any age) not enjoying this heartfelt novel.

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

NEW SHORT STORY: "Better Off" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art) is a 51-page novella about walking away from social media.

Nampa, Idaho - October 10, 2026 - An excerpt from the introduction of Better Off:

“Stop staring at them!” She had to shout over the heavy bass and thumping drums emanating from a stack of industrial-grade amplifiers surrounding the stage.

“I can’t help it!” He, too, had to shout over the music.

She pulled on his shirt sleeve like an admonishing mother and bellowed, “You’re letting them affect your evening, which is ruining mine!”

He pulled his arm away from her and shouted, “I’m sorry! It’s freaking mesmerizing to me, and at the same time, deeply disturbing!”

At 40, Cameron wasn’t one to attend concerts anymore, but Bon Jovi was a favorite of his on-again, off-again girlfriend Becca. They both liked the band, beginning in the mid-80s when their debut song, “Runaway,” became an overnight staple on every FM radio station across the country. His eyes drifted back to the foursome sitting five or six rows in front of him. Stadium-style seating gave Cameron a bird’s-eye view of the three young ladies and a young man who appeared to be the boyfriend of one of the phone-wielding girls. While his 20-something-year-old girlfriend texted and the other two filmed themselves reacting to the concert, he sat motionless, except for an occasional knee slap or head bob. Cameron sighed deeply. Four people came to the concert together, and yet each of them is having a separate experience from the other three. That’s crazy!

Despite Becca’s disapproving glare, Cameron continued surveying the crowd in front of him. While his and Becca’s phones were neatly tucked away in her car, he realized that the majority of the concertgoers were holding theirs, especially the women, no matter their age. Many were busy taking pictures and videos while others scrunched down in their seats, pecking away on their phones with both thumbs. From his superior vantage point, Cameron had a clear view of what was illuminated on several dozen screens bobbing in front of him, which, not surprisingly, were connected to social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. If their phones weren’t dialed into social media, they were displaying the telltale screens of an Android or iPhone texting app. Cameron shook his head in disbelief. I can still remember when people actually talked to other people with their phones. The world is freaking upside down!

“Oh my god. Look over there,” said Cameron, gesturing toward a woman with yellow cornrows and long pink fingernails. “Now I’ve seen everything.”

Becca didn’t even try to mask her annoyance. “Really, Cam? I don’t know where you are, but I’m at a concert.”

Becca had a right to be exasperated. Bon Jovi didn’t come to the Pacific Northwest very often; plus, they were in the middle of playing “You Give Love a Bad Name.” The irony of the song title did not escape Cameron. Still, his attention was drawn to the woman in question, who was holding a selfie stick with one hand while the other waved around her face. Her phone, of course, was attached to the business end of the telescoping wand with a luminous ring light encircling it. Although his girlfriend was ignoring him, Cameron leaned toward her and said, “If you think I’m a terrible person to attend a concert with, take a look at that selfish lady with the ring light to your right. You literally can’t miss her.”

Cameron didn’t wait for Becca to respond. He scanned the faces of the people surrounding the inconsiderate egomaniac, especially those unlucky enough to sit behind her, where the glowing ring light was an unquestionable distraction. Secretly, he wanted nothing more than to see an usher confiscate her ring light or an annoyed Bon Jovi fan grab it and smash it at her feet. Instead, he watched everyone around her act like she wasn’t there, which Cameron chalked up as par for the course in a society where people are routinely attacked for standing up for what’s obviously right. Phones, selfie sticks, and ring lights have no place in a music venue that requires only a set of working ears, and yet here they are, including three or four more ring lights on the other side of the arena.

Just as Bon Jovi began singing the chorus of “It’s My Life”—their big comeback hit from 2000—Cameron decided then and there that he needed more out of life than a full-time corporate job and a part-time girlfriend. Once again, the irony of the song title didn’t elude him. Deep down, Cameron knew he saw the world accurately, and from what he could gather, most people—especially the younger generations—were blindly marching toward the edge of a precipice with their faces glued to screens that distract, dull, and commandeer their minds. Social media is the single greatest propaganda and mind control machine ever unleashed on mankind, and they can’t see it. Cameron felt he had to do something—anything to wake them up from their half-dead stupor, reminding them that there’s more to life than a steady diet of trivial, often insidious, news and information.

Better Off picks up Cameron’s story two years after the Bon Jovi concert.

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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You can find Better Off on the “about” page of my website: www.trunksart.com. 

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Albert Camus' "The Possessed" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - August 31, 2026 - Imagine how impactful a novel must be if it was written and published in Russian by a renowned writer in 1872, then rewritten in French as a three-part stage play by another famous writer in 1959, followed by its translation into English so a not-so-famous writer could read it in 2026. These were my thoughts as I read Albert Camus’ The Possessed, a theatrical adaptation based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, The Devils, a fictional story based on real events about the corrosive nature of political violence, ideological extremism, and absolute nihilism, which both authors felt were the root of all evil. Dostoevsky and Camus were influenced by the turmoil of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, but as you’ll read in the following sample from The Possessed, this same scourge is alive and well in the present century:

LIPUTIN: Yes indeed. He proposes dividing humanity into two unequal parts. About a tenth will have absolute freedom and unlimited authority over the other nine tenths, who will have to lose their personality and become like a flock of sheep. Kept in the state of complete submission of sheep, they will, on the other hand, achieve the state of innocence of sheep. In short, it will be Eden, except that men will have to work.

SHIGALOV: Yes. That’s how I achieve equality. All men are slaves and equal in their slavery. They can’t be equal otherwise. Hence it is essential to level. For instance, the level of education and talent will be lowered. Since men of talent always tend to rise, Cicero’s tongue will have to be torn out, Copernicus’s eyes gouged out, and Shakespeare stoned. There is my system.

LIPUTIN: Yes, Mr. Shigalov discovered that superior faculties are germs of inequality, hence of despotism. Consequently, as soon as a man is seen to have superior gifts, he is shot down or imprisoned. Even very handsome people are suspect in this regard and must be suppressed.

SHIGALOV: And even fools, if they are very notable fools, for they might lead others into the temptation of glorifying in their superiority, which is a germ of despotism. By these means, on the other hand, equality will be absolute.

Camus’ theatrical adaptation of Dostoevsky’s The Demons is about the burgeoning socialist movements growing in Russia during the 1860s—decades before the Russian Revolution in 1917 following WWI—but The Possessed is more of a cautionary tale warning us that as long as we allow nihilistic despots to claim power and control, we cannot advance as a species. Camus’ words spoken during his acceptance of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 give me hope to continue my own writing: “Whatever our personal weaknesses may be, the nobility of our craft (writing) will always be rooted in two commitments, difficult to maintain: the refusal to lie about what one knows and the resistance to oppression.”

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of John Green's "Everything Is Tuberculosis" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

 

Nampa, Idaho - August 17, 2026 - According to John Green’s recent book, Everything Is Tuberculosis (2025), one out of every seven people who ever lived died of the infectious disease. Not even the combined kill totals of Mao Zedong (80 million), Genghis Kahn (40 million), Joseph Stalin (20 million), Adolf Hitler (17 million), and Leopold II of Belgium (15 million) can come close to the staggering death toll of tuberculosis: 17 billion. At only 200 million deaths to its credit, the plague pandemic of the 14th century—better known as Black Death—can’t compare to the enduring wrath of the tuberculosis pathogen. Green goes on to say that the insidious microbe has been with us for over 9,000 years, since before written language and domesticated horses—even before the pyramids of ancient Egypt were built.

Although he doesn’t spell it out per se, Green smartly divides his captivating and sentient commentary about the number one killer of humans between two lenses—one that looks at the world before there was a cure and the other, after highly successful antibiotics were developed in the 1950s. What I found most disturbing was Green’s sad disclosure that more than 150 million people have died of tuberculosis since the initial remedy was developed. Most of these avoidable deaths occur within impoverished nations, where marginalized people not only continue to spread the disease, but they also allow the untreated microbe to develop resistance to first- and second-line antibiotic regimens. This year alone, 1.25 million people will die from tuberculosis, with the U.S. contributing less than 1,000 of those deaths.

Leading the way in this travesty are, of course, drug companies, who, not surprisingly, prioritize greed over human need. But the problem extends beyond the usual exploitative practices of a sickening business world that kneels at the feet of the god of profit. Even if these precious, life-saving drugs were sent to low- and middle-income countries—places like West Africa and Southeast Asia—the infrastructure needed to support the distribution and administration doesn’t exist or is in poor shape. To illustrate this point, Green tells a story of when he stepped on a rusty nail in his backyard. In it, he describes all that was necessary for him to obtain a simple tetanus shot in a medical office: his car, roads, a doctor, insurance, refrigeration for the drug, a clean needle, etc. In other words, obtaining a tetanus shot requires much more than just the vaccine itself.

In his closing remarks, Green eloquently summarizes the ongoing tuberculosis crisis with these sobering words: “Modern TB deaths are driven by inequality rather than the bacteria itself.” I believe there’s a tendency in all of us—especially those lucky enough to have been born within the borders of a rich country—to consider abominations like tuberculosis to be a third-world problem when, in fact, it’s a ticking time bomb for all of humanity. A new super-stain of the deadly disease, resistant to our entire arsenal of antibiotics, will inevitably infiltrate the United States and other wealthy nations. While we twiddle our thumbs, awaiting the next tuberculosis pandemic to commence, drug companies will continue to focus on money-making trivialities like stopping premature hair loss, eliminating body odor, treating dogs for depression, and neutralizing heartburn.

Everything Is Tuberculosis is written by an author who, at the same time, engages and outrages his readers with the harsh realities about our longstanding relationship with an infectious disease that’s as old as dirt. To me, Green’s entire approach is analogous to ignoring a leak when it’s not on your side of the boat. Eventually, everybody succumbs to what could’ve been an avoidable catastrophe, but unfortunately, I’m a passenger on a ship of fools.

 

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Tarpley Hitt's "Barbie Land: The Unauthorized History" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - August 10, 2026 - As I began reading Barbie Land: The Unauthorized History (2025) by Tarpley Hitt, it didn’t take long for me to lament, “Oh no! Barbie is a product of the evil empire? Say it isn’t so!” The founders of Mattel, Inc., Harold Matson and husband-and-wife duo Elliot and Ruth Handler, preferred a romanticized origin story for Barbie, claiming the iconic doll—named after the Handlers’ daughter—was simply dreamed up in a garage in El Segundo, California, out of a pure love for toy making. Much of that is true; however, from the doll’s early development to its debut in 1959 to the present moment, the multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company continues to be ruthlessly competitive, secretive, and prolifically litigious. In other words, the real origin story will shock you as it did me.

Barbie Land reads more like a book on how to build a successful empire by doing whatever it takes—ethical or not—to become the shrewdest, meanest shark in the shark tank. More than once, I had to remind myself I was reading about a company that makes plastic dolls for little girls and not weapon systems for the Pentagon! As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one who thought Mattel’s take-no-prisoners business model was a blueprint for crushing competition and establishing market dominance. Not only did other toy manufacturers reorganize to emulate Mattel’s callous business practices but also companies from vastly different industries, many of which are still in operation today. The maker of Barbie was more than a maverick innovator of toys; it was a trailblazer in its use of television advertising, focus groups, behavioral economics, intellectual property protections, and horizontal acquisitions.

I appreciate the effort Tarpley Hitt put into Barbie Land, but it left me unsettled and somewhat depressed. It merely confirmed my view that today’s top American businesses are driven solely by profit, obsessed with growth, and completely unrestrained by morality. Now I can’t look at a Barbie doll without imagining it with a set of razor-sharp shark teeth.

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

 

NEW SHORT STORY: "Reclaiming Charity" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art) is a 31-page novella about walking away from institutionalized benevolence.

Nampa, Idaho - August 1, 2026 - More than a decade ago, the corporate worshippers of the god of profit convinced us we needed a phone and a dating app, charging $39.99 per month, to access love. Unbelievably, instead of turning our backs on yet another for-profit business model shamelessly crafted to cash in on what comes naturally to most people, we embraced it like mindless lemmings, including me. I’ve long since deleted my dating profiles, dismissing the faceless algorithms standing between me and my future mate. However, there’s a new middleman to contend with, one who’s just as opportunistic and exploitative as the dating app matchmakers. He’s on your TV, and he’s asking for $19 a month, only 63 cents a day!

Reclaiming Charity tells the story of two people seeking personal redemption through charitable contribution. One goes about it in the way the TV ads dictate; the other blazes his own trail. Two different methods. Two different outcomes. You decide which path feels right to you.

 

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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You can find “Reclaiming Charity” on the “about” page of my website: www.trunksart.com. 

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

 

A Brief Review of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

 

Nampa, Idaho - July 5, 2026 - I thought I could do it—reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) after having read John Steinbeck’s gut-wrenching The Grapes of Wrath (1939) only months earlier. I limped through the first half of Sinclair’s seminal novel, a fictional story exposing the horrific conditions of the Chicago meatpacking industry, before calling it quits, saying, “Enough already—I can’t take it!” Apparently, I have no stomach when it comes to the plight of the innocent, especially if the story is based on facts gathered firsthand by the author.

The two books are eerily similar, each centered on an uprooted, multigenerational family in distress as they struggle for economic security and independence in unfamiliar and hostile environments. Whereas Steinbeck’s Joad family faces poverty, prejudice, and cruelty as migrant farmworkers in 1930s-central California, Sinclair’s Rudkus family is subjected to even worse indignities as workers in the stockyard district in early 20th-century Chicago. Shockingly, it took a muckraking exposé like The Jungle to force the government’s hand. The book’s release spurred the creation of the Meat Inspection Act, authorizing USDA oversight of the meatpacking industry, and the Pure Food and Drug Act, which ultimately gave rise to the FDA. In other words, the heartless owners of these hellish enterprises had to be publicly shamed before lifting a finger to ensure the safety of their employees and those who consumed their products. How disgusting.

However, most disturbingly, 30 years later, it’s “déjà vu all over again.” This time, it was Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath that uncovered the horrendous working conditions and slave wages of the agricultural workers on large California farms, triggering congressional investigations and, ultimately, migrant worker rights and protections. At this point, it’s difficult for me to believe that any change has taken place—at least the kind of change that doesn’t separate a human being from basic needs and dignity. I believe America does a terrific job of making it look like real change has taken place when in truth it’s a game packed with appeasement and lies. What’s coming next—a book exposing the exploitation of Amazon workers in its fulfillment centers? A tell-all account of how Uber and DoorDash executives capitalize on the desperation of their drivers? To me, the mantra never changes in this country: corporate greed over human need.

-Chuck Trunks

“This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI.”

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).