There Is No Was

There Is No Was, the first novel by author Vicente James Hernandez, is a thirteen year long journey through the clumsy life of Walter, growing up in the late 90's and early 00's, as he struggles to measure up to the impossible standards of the world around him. To say he feels awkward among his peers is beyond an understatement. His mother drinks heavily, wandering in and out of the frame as he relocates to the beach to live with his father. Here, he begins to rack up failed attempts at being acknowledged by the fairer sex, all the while continuing his struggle to find a single human being he can relate to. His only friend becomes the bizarre Smiley, a homeless young man drifting from town to town. For Walter, a whole new level of debauchery and loneliness is about to open up and swallow him whole. "There Is No Was gives the reader a character to add to one's literary census, a citizen no less of one's own world." --Laura Hope-Gill, Author of The Soul Tree