Two, Two, Lily-White Boys

Two, Two, Lily-White Boys follows the fortunes of two 14-year-old Scouts from Ermine Falls–Larry Carstairs, the narrator, and Andy Dellums, Larry’s schoolmate and friend–over the course of six days at Camp Greavy, a Boy Scout camp not far from Traverse City, Michigan. The story’s catalyst and Andy’s tormentor is Russell “Curly” Norrys, a worldly, charismatic 17-year-old, a homophobe who suspects that Andy is a homosexual. Mercurial, protean, possibly sociopathic, Curly engineers conflicts that accelerate as the days wear on, eventually culminating in tragedy. Passive-aggressive Larry, moved to action at last, must choose between self-preservation and justice.

Praise for Two, Two, Lily-White Boys:

“In this classic story of male adolescence and homophobia, Clark writes with seemingly effortless clarity–clarity of narrative, sentence, meaning, and character–and this short, richly packed novel may well be his masterpiece.”— DeWitt Henry, author of Sweet Dreams

“In this rite of passage story set at a Boy Scout summer camp, Clark’s protagonist, Larry Carstairs, meets up with Curly Norrys, a curious blend of humor, intellectual acumen, nihilism, and sheer malevolence. Clark makes us feel, full strength, Larry’s struggle with the nature of ambiguity. Clark’s fiction here, as elsewhere, is a compelling mix of straight realism and black humor.” — Jack Smith, author of Hog to Hog