Michael Chabon describes nostalgia as "the emotional experience – always momentary, always fragile – of having what you lost or never had, of seeing what you missed seeing". If Chabon is correct and we're all searching for the "feeling that overcomes you when some minor vanished beauty of the world is momentarily restored", then it's likely The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak will be very popular indeed. Set in a small American town in the 1980s – albeit a sepia-filtered, distant, apolitical 1980s – it satisfyingly recalls a simpler time with great charm and ease. Although it is occasionally slight and rarely innovative, what the novel lacks in freshness it more than makes up for with heart and humour. It is far more indebted to cinema than literature, and features archetypes familiar to John Hughes fans. Three nerdy but well-meaning boys set out on a quest to find a copy of Playboy featuring scandalous photos of Wheel of Fortune beauty Vanna White. Who remembers when pornography was this romantic? Through their convoluted escapades, the main boy, Billy Marvin, raised by a single mother and failing at school, meets a real-life girl, Mary Zelinsky, and endures the complications that don't come with a centrefold. Fumbling occurs, the soundtrack instantly recalls shoulder pads and smoke machines, and the boys bike around a town that, even in the dark, they know by heart. Sometimes, it feels good, as Billy reaffirms, "to be out in the night, out on a real adventure, away from a computer screen".
