BURGER WUSS

Savaging young love, male adolescence, and—with tender attention to detail and wildly funny results—the fast food business, Anderson (Thirsty, 1997) pits a teenage doormat against a larger, smarter, nastier rival. Anthony, after seeing his girlfriend, Diana, making out with local stud, Turner, concocts an elaborate revenge: He gets hired at the O’Dermott’s where Turner works, then puts into play Turner’s beloved ’85 Olds and a fiberglass, condiment-dispensing troll from the town’s Burger Queen. Meanwhile, as he listens to his manager’s mindless boosterism on one side and a cook’s lurid accusations of corporate greed and hideous livestock abuse on the other, Anthony becomes Turner’s designated victim, a target for put-downs, pranks, and periodic assaults. His revenge works perfectly, and Anthony knows true success when Turner’s girlfriend asks him to confirm her suspicions of her boy’s infidelities. Still, Anthony is a hero, and so his victory is a hollow one: “I feel like I became what I hate most. But a clumsy, stupid version.” Ultimately, Turner beats Anthony to a pulp in front of costumed company mascot, Kermit O’Dermott, and a battalion of corporate big shots; Diana walks away in disgust; and Anthony, having lost at love, war, and employment, picks himself back up feeling more liberated than humiliated. Anderson plots this with the precision of a fast-food marketing campaign, but his hero is more human than high concept. Did somebody say McSatire? (Fiction. 13-15)