"In eight interconnected stories, David V. Matthews depicts the ordinary and secretly-subversive lives of high-school students, university  professors, aspiring creative types, and dissatisfied office workers in Western Pennsylvania from the 1970s to today. With a meticulous eye for detail,  he shows how America's sociopolitical ideologies have shaped - and misshaped- characters who crave nothing more than the brief, transcendent moments that art, music, religion, sex, cheesy pop-culture, or patriotic hydrants can bring. Satirical and serious, hilarious and heartbreaking, Meltdown in the Cereal Aisle heralds the arrival of a quirky new talent."

New expanded edition!