His first novel, Apple Pie, isn't an autobiographical account of his collegiate stint, but readers who went to U of M (or perhaps any college, for that matter) can easily associate with the personalities and experiences that the subject of the book encounters.

It's probably safe to say that everyone who went away to college could write a book about it, but the 40-year-old Mazzotta actually did. Sprinkled with satire and comedy, it follows the life of Alex Kim, who is as American as apple pie, but as the son of successful Korean immigrants, he doesn't quite fit in to either culture.

While family and fellow students expect him to be an Asian whiz kid, he's your typical struggling student. His friends are an assortment of engineering nerds, and his girlfriend by family arrangement is hardly a warm romantic.

Kim, who hails from Grosse Pointe, is expected to get a solid job as an engineer when he graduates,and marry sweet Sarah.

But in a series of rash decisions, he switches his major to philosophy, gets cut off from the family cash, and takes a job as a waiter.

And that's when Kim discovers the true Ann Arbor life. He meets Naomi, a blond goddess, who,for reasons he can't understand, likes him. Kim's fantasy becomes reality as Naomi takes him into her world of nonconformists.

There's Doobie, who references Vietnam in every conversation, and there's Julian, who just returned from a rain forest mission and Odium, a poet who only answers to direct questions, not to statements. Anyone who's ever spent time with Ann Arbor townies can relate to these characters who are usually far more interesting than students. And anyone who's ever waited tables in Ann Arbor can totally relate to the lingering stress dream that Kim has: He's totally naked taking orders - and the patron is typically the professor who's a constant source of frustration.

Kim's story actually takes on another level of interest when he encounters life outside of the university. It is when Kim has no direction that he ends up finding out who he really is. Mazzotta writes in a fast and breezy style, so there's rarely a dull moment in Apple Pie, and his humor highlights the uneasiness that every college student has felt.

A classic example comes at the end of the story, when Kim is desperately trying to make ends meet, and becomes a professional guinea pig in the psychology lab. Again, any student who's gone down that road knows that brain probing is a hard way to earn a buck. But, as Kim says, "I could have been involved in some sort of really twisted medical experiment. Or I could have been selling various bodily fluids."

Yup. That pretty much sums up the college experience for lots of folks. And for those who'd like to look back on those days, perhaps a slice of Apple Pie will hit the spot.