Revisit the Eighties

Einstein isn't the only genius to have done poorly in school. Some kids in their teens, or even younger, have minds so focused on their true passion, art perhaps or automobile mechanics or insect life, that they can give little attention to such mundane things as social studies, algebra and English grammar.

Jason Rekulak's remarkable 2017 novel The Impossible Fortress takes us into the life of one such student, 14-year-old Billy Marvin. Although a potential A student according to intelligence tests, Billy is barely passing his classes. His single mother works nights, leaving Billy home alone. When he should be doing homework, he designs games on his Commodore 64.

Yes, a Commodore 64. This is the mid-Eighties, at the dawn of the home computer age when the Commodore 64 was a popular option. Its memory wasn't much, but still Billy could do amazing things, amazing at least to his best friends, Alf and Clark. His best game yet, still in its early stages, is one called The Impossible Fortress.

Alf and Clark are the kind of guys for which the phrase "with friends like these ..." might have been invented. Billy knows better, but he is weak-willed enough to go along with his pals' crazy schemes. Most of these schemes have to do with getting a copy of the latest Playboy magazine, which has nude pictures of Vanna White inside. The boys are all too young to buy a copy, so a nefarious plan is called for. Alf, especially, thinks the more complicated the better when it comes to nefarious plans. Plan after plan fails until Alf comes up with one he claims is foolproof, requiring Bill to sweet talk Mary Zelinsky, daughter of a neighborhood store that sells magazines, into revealing the store's security code.

Billy yields to the ridiculous plan after learning Mary has computer skills even surpassing his own. She tells him of a game-creation contest for students, and they start working together each day after school to perfect The Impossible Fortress.

Through the course of the novel, Billy himself faces one impossible fortress after another: finishing the game on time, breaking into Zelinsky's store and, finally, sneaking into the fortress-like Catholic girls' school Mary attends.

Rekulak gives his novel a soundtrack of Eighties music. Not literally, but songs from that period are mentioned throughout. The story even has the feel of one of those Eighties movies featuring teenage characters. It's all great, nostalgic fun. And to continue the fun, Rekulak even has Billy and Mary's game The Impossible Fortress on his website (www.jasonrekulak.com).