Amazing how a book I read about on a passing article from The Guardian can ensconce me in a reading state, only a few steps away from the bevelled edge of the pit of reader's block. The novel narrates a summer of misspent youth, the indelicate manner of questioning sexuality (and its criminalization) and characters that exist, but then didn't. This particular plot point, vague and crammed in, just so Art can frame his growth, his coming of age into not needing the people he had known in the single summer of his life, felt unsatisfying. As a whole, <i>The Mysteries of Pittsburgh</i> engages the reader with its descriptions, the pacing, not too wrought nor is it too slow. The pretentiousness I read about in relation to the novel does not stand out far too much. But rather, the references to things (mostly towards literature) strained a little. The influence of <i>On the Road</i> and <i>The Catcher in the Rye</i> are present, without a doubt, what with Art's doubted sexuality and the throwing around of the word 'bisexual' but having it mean nothing, but in terms of aesthetics and parallels, <i>The Great Gatsby</i> is also there.