The Dying of Our Youth

The Dying of Our Youth is the story of Catawba Fox and his humorous misadventures in life. He lives in the fictional town of Fonta Flora in the Foothills of Western North Carolina and spends his days caring for his elderly grandfather, exploring the great outdoors, trying to find work, and watching as his hometown is slowly destroyed by the winds of social and economic change. The novel is centered around several important weeks in the life of Catawba. He works a series of pointless jobs: door-to-door salesman, park service employee, and farm hand. All of which leave him empty inside and longing for more. After his last employer is dispatched in a suspicious house fire he decides to take his typewriter to the mountains and sit down and write a novel about everything that happened to him. The novel is peppered with comedy and jaw-dropping prose.