Chip Jacobs, in conversation with Sandra Tsing Loh, discusses & signs Later Days
A purchase of the book from Vroman's is greatly appreciated and makes events like this possible.
Get ready for a once-in-a-lifetime ’70s nostalgia extravaganza! Vroman’s is thrilled to host bestselling author Chip Jacobs for the launch of his new novel Later Days, joined in conversation by Sandra Tsing Loh—American writer, actress, radio personality, and cultural icon. The setting for Later Days begins in 1979 Pasadena.
Part reading, part party, this event will transport you back to the era of roller rinks, Journey on the radio, and Boone’s Farm on the table. The evening kicks off with a live string trio playing late ’70s favorites, followed by a lively on-stage conversation between Jacobs and Loh, audience trivia, and a reading from Later Days. Expect the unexpected—from surprise appearances to ’70s snacks (yes, Pop Rocks and Pringles make the cut) and themed drinks. Stick around after the show for book signing and more retro fun.
In an evocative follow-up to his Los Angeles-Times bestselling Arroyo, Chip Jacobs returns with a gripping tale of brotherhood, recklessness, and last-ditch redemption against the backdrop of a Southern California prep school in gender upheaval.
As the elite, all-boys institution transitions to coed, transforming the place from suburban Lord of the Flies to soap-operatic play, two unlikely friends--Luke Burnett and Denny Drummond--alternate rescuing the other from self-destruction and home lives gutted by loss and distracted parents. Eager to maximize their era as God-like Seniors at Stone Canyon Prep, the pair and their classmates act invincible. They commandeer Bob's Big Boy and wander the secret world beneath Caltech, meeting a charismatic Nobel Prize physicist in the process. They sweat destiny-making S.A.T.s, grapple with fallout when two boys fall for the same girl, and watch in horror as a playoff basketball game is upended by the chemistry lab. Just when our heroes barely graduate, en route to prized universities, their bond is severed by a wild gunshot that will haunt them for decades.
Twenty years later, Luke is a hard-charging journalist with an imploding career, while Denny is a visionary software engineer on the verge of a breakthrough--until a terminal diagnosis rewrites any happy ending. Their reunion forces both to confront the worst of themselves, a luminous female classmate who predicted her own death, and exactly how they squandered the potential Stone Canyon draped around them. As Denny's time runs short, Luke races to make peace with his failures in a world shorn of the magic his teachers once heralded. In a final act of reckoning, with the famous Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in the mix, fate offers them one last chance to heal the other by confronting mortality and pleading for goodbyes slippery before.
Later Days is a powerful exploration of the ties that bind and break us. Perfect for readers drawn to fierce, flawed friendships, the currency of forgiveness, and the raw beauty of life skimming its edge. With rich insight into the secret histories of the late-seventies Pasadena area, and the psychological baggage of growing up in the shadows of "Great Men," father, Jacobs second novel is as emotionally resonant as it is intellectually sharp.
