''Garden State'' is a 1992 novel by

Rick Moody Hiram Frederick Moody III (born October 18, 1961) is an American novelist and short story writer best known for the 1994 novel ''The Ice Storm'', a chronicle of the dissolution of two suburban Connecticut families over Thanksgiving weekend in 19 ...

about a group of friends in suburban

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

struggling towards adulthood. It was awarded a Pushcart Press Editors' Book Award. The novel follows several young people in their early 20s in

Haledon, New Jersey Haledon ( ) is a borough in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 9,052, an increase of 734 (+8.8%) from the 2010 census count of 8,318, which in turn reflected an in ...

, through one spring. Although the exact year in which the novel is set is unclear, it appears to be the early 1980s. The protagonist is Alice, a 23-year-old woman who struggles to maintain a dating relationship with a man named Dennis. Dennis' stepbrother, Lane, recently attempted to commit suicide, and has just been released from a state mental institution following this attempt to end his life. Alice, Dennis, and Lane struggle to make the passage to adulthood even as their families and the economy crumble around them, and new social mores, music and politics tempt them in different directions.

References

1992 American novels Novels set in New Jersey Passaic County, New Jersey Haledon, New Jersey {{1990s-novel-stub