Empty Calories and Male Curiosity: Stories by Ted McLoof

In a blue-collar New Jersey town at the turn of the millennium, teenagers navigate the strange territory between childhood and whatever comes next. They grapple with sex, drugs, 9/11, and Tom Cruise while wondering if any adult around them is worth becoming.

In "Future Girl," the AIDS crisis delivers unexpected lessons in grief. In "Elegy for a Sporting Goods Store," the dawn of the internet threatens their after-school mom-and-pop jobs. In "The View from Hawthorne Heights," they weigh the looming Iraq War against the pop music on their radio.

As technology creeps closer and history unfolds in real-time, these Jersey kids deploy every tool they can find to keep reality at arm's length—for just a little while longer.