Tales from the Crypt of an American Working Class Hero, Rob McCuen’s second collection this year finds the Milwaukee writer mining his years growing up in Mount Pleasant, Iowa and beyond. In the five short stories that blur the lines between fact and fiction McCuen, takes the reader into the mythology of a rivalry that began in fourth grade to a denouement that smacks of adulthood. He is decidedly not on-the-fence in long-serving zeal for power pop icons Cheap Trick. Similarly, he straps the reader in the driver’s seat as his lifelong passion for sprint cars finally gets him behind the wheel for a few laps in a George Plimpton-esque tale from Elkhart Lake. A pair of other stories that lean toward psychological fiction could be blueprints for longer works.
Best known as a drummer and front man, the book also includes nearly two dozen of McCuen’s lyrics that trace his career in such bands as Liquid Pink, Love Bully, The Ruins and Animal Magnets.
