"He was a member of his own club, the sole member, the charter member who founded the club of one; he was its president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. One virgin. The One Virgin Club." This describes Kirk, the main character from Richard Stickann's new novel Hobbledehoy Boy. He's a boy who just can't get the coming of age thing right. Kirk's main nemesis, but not his only one, Sister Mary Norbert, knows everything about sins of the flesh and wayward boys, but she never answers Kirk's questions. And the girls who enter his life, the ones who frequently become his adversary, throw up confusion in every direction. He can't speak their language, doesn't get their jokes, and just when he thinks one finally likes him, he discovers she's just using him for practice. Kirk's status as a hobbledehoy, continually worsens because of his circumstances. Growing up on the South side of Chicago in the 60's, in a heavily Catholic neighborhood, and in the shadow of his father's untimely death, leaves Kirk wading through the murky waters of sin and confession, fearful of getting "in deep shit with God." His only role model is his wayward, pot-growing, STD-dodging, somewhat misogynistic older brother, Hump, who tries to lead Kirk into "adulthood," but grows ever weary of his brother's fear and awkwardness. Even when events transpire that lead Kirk to believe he will finally learn what women are about, what sins of the flesh are and why the nuns are so scared of them, something always seems to go hopelessly wrong. From a small bladder to Fig Newtons, a horny dog and ridiculous bunny slippers, outside influences always conspire to block his every move. Kirk spends much of his waking life trying to figure out who to blame for being a perpetual hobbledehoy. Will Kirk ever escape? He desperately hopes so, but somehow it seems even the neighborhood itself is conspiring against him by forcing him to remain inside its confines of past regret.
