Jumping Season

Abstract

"Jumping Season" is a novel set in Devon Lake Village, a fictional Adirondack vacation town where the rural town folk must serve the wealthy vacationers who provide their local economy. The protagonist is Louie King, a quiet but violent teenager who works full-time as a dishwasher in an expensive restaurant. Louie is stuck in his dead-end life, and everyone in his life is unhappy. Louie longs for his boyhood when he did not have to work, when those around him seemed happy in their world. In this portion of the novel, Louie struggles with his reluctance to drop out of school to move away with his best friend Rusty, his lack of family, his resentment of the wealthy vacationers, and his ambivalence in developing a friendship with Frankie, the new kid in town and perhaps the only person who can find happiness in Devon Lake Village.