Okay for Now is about a 14-year-old boy named Doug Swieteck. The year is 1968, and Doug is living through the Space Race, Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency, and the Vietnam War. Doug's life is not exactly a walk in the park, and he has to deal with an abusive father who got fired from his job for bad-mouthing his boss, a submissive mother, and two older brothers who constantly bully him.
On a visit to the local library, Doug becomes very interested in the book The Birds of America, illustrated by John James Audubon. Doug is intrigued by the pictures in the book and soon begins to learn how to draw, inspired by the birds' pictures. Doug's teacher is a librarian named Mr. Powell.
Later on in the story, Doug meets a girl named Lil Spicer, the daughter of the local deli owner, and Doug gets a job offer from Lil's father to be a delivery boy for the deli. Doug and Lil begin spending a lot of time together, and eventually, Doug develops a crush on Lil.
As the story progresses, Doug flourishes into a different version of himself and an improved and happier version. Doug finds love, grows up, and when he realizes that pages of the book of birds or the Audubon book as it is called in the story go missing, he embarks on a quest to recover the lost pages.
One thing that particularly interests me about this book is the incredible case of character development. Throughout the story, we see Doug develop into a happier and more respected kid. As the story starts, we are introduced to Doug as a useless low-life with unstable home life, but towards the end of the novel, Doug has made friendships and has discovered a love and talent for drawing.
At the beginning of the story, Doug's relationship with his brother, who comes home from Vietnam, does not start in the best way possible, but once he gets a chance to have a deep talk with him, they find out that they have more in common than they had previously thought they did.
Some people believed Doug was a mirror image of his father and brothers, who are mean and despicable people. But it turns out that he has a much softer side that cares about the people he truly loves.
Overall, we see an enormous change in attitude from Doug, and the author does a splendid job of describing every occurrence in the story. This book makes you want to be beside Doug as he is trying to find out who he is, and it makes you want to get rid of all the bad people and obstacles he faces along the way. In my opinion, this book is a 10/10 and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an engaging story to read.
I always enjoy stories from this time period and it sounds like this story is just as interesting. I think that the fact that Doug is inspired by a book to draw and uses his inspiration to improve his life will create great character development and an intriguing plot that I would love to read!
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