Garden State, Rick Moody

The book was described by one reviewer as a teenage version of Mrs. Bridge. It's a tough Jersey world where kids lose their way in ennui, drugs, alcohol and mental illness. Their parents are unavailable, being busy with their own sad lives, unable to cope or just plain uninterested.

One of the characters spends most of her time longing for the days when she believed rock and roll stardom was within her grasp. Time mowed down her dreams. Unable to imagine a new future, she drifts along in an alcoholic haze.

Lane, a young man with an unidentified serious mental illness attempts to kill himself with the help of some friends who insist that he go to a party with them. They want to help him find his way back to that storied past in which they're all stuck in one way or another.

In the end, there's no redemption. Garden State is bleak, but beautifully written.