It sparked a bidding war among publishers.
Renowned author Tim O'Brien praised it as "a richly imagined, beautifully written and completely absorbing work of fiction."
And though it was just released Monday, it has already been named a Southern Independent Booksellers Association Okra Pick, recognizing it as a notable Southern book.
However, this is not the latest highly anticipated book from an established best-selling author. It's the debut novel from Greensboro author Drew Perry.
A writer and English professor at Elon University, Perry spent four years perfecting "This Is Just Exactly Like You" before he finally saw his novel hit store shelves this week.
After sending out a couple of drafts of the book, Perry found a literary agent in New York. From there, the publishing process moved quickly. Several publishers fought over the book, but ultimately the winner was Viking Press, a division of Penguin Group.
"That was surreal and really gratifying," said Perry, 35. "It was nice to know that more than one person wanted to read it."
"This Is Just Exactly Like You" tells the story of Jack Lang, a spontaneous North Carolina man who runs a mulch business. When he impulsively buys the house across the street at an auction, his wife, Beth, who has grown tired of his antics, leaves him.
"It's the kind of thing he does all the time," Perry said. "He begins projects and never finishes them, and she just can't take it any more."
Beth moves in with Jack's best friend, Terry Canavan, and Jack finds himself in a budding relationship with Canavan's ex-girlfriend, Rena, after she stops by the house to see how he's holding up.
All of the insanity in the four adults' lives is watched with interest by Jack and Beth's 6-year-old autistic son, Hendrick. He rarely talks to anyone but one day begins speaking fluent Spanish, further proof to Jack that the world is a complicated and unpredictable place.
"It started with Hendrick," Perry said. "That was the one character I had the whole time."
Perry wrote a draft of a story with a character like Hendrick and a character like Jack that was "absolutely miserable." But when the house around the corner from where Perry lived went up for auction, something clicked.
"Once I had that, I knew I had the story," Perry said. "I thought, 'What if Jack does that (buys the house across the street)?' "
* * * * *
Perry's wife, Tita Ramirez, also a writer and English professor at Elon University, read drafts of the novel and gave him feedback throughout the whole process. From Perry's earliest draft, Ramirez believed he had some strong material.
"Drew will write what is supposed to be a crappy first draft, and I'll read it and say, 'Are you kidding me? This is your crappy first draft?' "
Ramirez has believed all along that Hendrick is the life force of the book. Perry didn't approach his young supporting character expecting him to be autistic, but he couldn't stop Hendrick from evolving that way.
"It wasn't so much that I chose to make that kid autistic," Perry said. "It's just that he was. That's how he appears on the page, and I didn't want to get out of the way of that."
Perry's younger brother has autism, but Hendrick isn't entirely based on him. Perry said his brother was diagnosed in a similar way, but he is much more high-functioning than Hendrick is in the book.
"In all the ways I can think of, my brother is more high-functioning than most of us are," Perry said.
His brother is married, completing his doctorate, expecting a child and getting ready to buy a house. Perry said his brother is more put together than he is, but without witnessing the effects of autism growing up, the character of Hendrick would likely not have been born.
Hendrick sees the world more literally and honestly than most people, and he isn't afraid to call the adults out on the crazy things they do.
"Hendrick's not modeled on (my brother), and Hendrick's not a version of him, but there's no way I could have written Hendrick if I hadn't known my brother and learned to love some of the ways my brother sees the world."
* * * * *
Perry crafted the novel in a shed behind his house. He is a place-oriented writer, preferring to write only at his desk and in the morning.
"It really helps me to leave the house, to be able to work at home but to have to walk across the yard to that little writing shed," Perry said.
Even when he's standing in line at the grocery store or driving down the road, Perry is constantly thinking about his writing and his characters.
"He has this really uncanny ability to write in his head," Ramirez said. "He's the writer so many of us want to be."
Ramirez said one of Perry's greatest strengths is his dialogue, which is challenging for many writers. She said his dialogue reads as easily as that of a playwright or screenwriter, and it is always infused with humor.
"I think even his darkest story, which is this crazy story called 'Five Things About Chickens,' has humor in it," Ramirez said. "But ('This Is Just Exactly Like You') especially is so funny."
But Perry's writing wasn't always so humorous. One of his earliest exposures to writing was in high school when he began filling notebooks with "terrible" poetry and inspirational quotes.
"I would have been a cool emo kid if I had been cool or emo," Perry said. "Instead I was just a dork. I was just a dork writing down Ray Bradbury quotes."
In college, Perry changed his major nine times before he discovered his passion for creative writing. His earlier career aspirations included working for "Sportscenter" and international business ventures.
"I was going to be fluent in Russian, and I was going to be doing deals in Moscow and God knows where else," Perry said. "That was my initial plan."
It was too late to change his major again by the time he realized his love for creative writing, but he minored in it and went to graduate school for it at UNCG.
"It's hard to predict which students will persevere, but in Drew's case I had little doubt simply because every time I would run into him he would ask what I was reading, and we would within seconds be into a passionate dissection of a book," said Michael Parker, Perry's former professor at UNCG. "Drew reads widely and carefully, and he puts in the hours. All of us at (UNCG) are big-time proud of him."
It was at UNCG that Perry met Ramirez, who inspired his next novel to a degree.
Perry and Ramirez are expecting their first child, which Perry said is terrifying but also exciting. His second novel will revolve around a couple who are also expecting a child, but unlike Perry, the protagonist would rather not have a baby.
Whatever else life brings him, Perry said he always feels at home when he's writing.
"It doesn't feel so much like a choice as just sort of what I do with my life," Perry said. "I'm OK when I'm writing, and I'm not OK when I'm not. I don't know whether that's bad or good."
Contact Alexa Milan at amilan87@gmail.com
