Youth in Revolt
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| Youth in Revolt | |
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| Author | C. D. Payne |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Epistolary novel |
| Publisher | Aivia Press |
| Publication date | June 1993 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 503 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-1882647002 |
Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp is a 1993 epistolary novel by C. D. Payne. The story is told in a picaresque fashion and makes heavy use of black humor and camp. The book contains parts one through three of a six-part series (the three sequential parts were published as three separate books).
100 Girls, a 2001 comedy film written and directed by Michael Davis, directly lifts many plot elements and jokes from Youth In Revolt.[citation needed]
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[edit] Plot summary
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
The book's protagonist is Nicholas "Nick" Twisp, a young boy of above-average intelligence going through puberty. He is naturally obsessed with girls and sex but has had little experience with either. His life continues like a normal teenager's with his best friend Leroy, a.k.a. Lefty, and his divorced parents. His mother is dating a truck driver named Jerry, who sells a group of sailors a Chevy Nova that dies soon after the sailors get it. In response, the sailors go for revenge. After outsmarting them, Jerry strategically decides to take a vacation, so they all go to a religious mobile home camp.
It is there that Nick meets Sheridan "Sheeni" Saunders and his life is turned completely upside down. Through plots to get Sheeni closer to him he ends up with several crimes on his hands and is forced to run from the cops. He tricks everyone into thinking he went to India, thereby escaping the police. Nick hides out with his sister and returns with help from his friend in Ukiah, Frank "Fuzzy" DeFalco. He dresses in Fuzzy's late grandmother's clothes, adopting the name Carlotta and a conservative disposition, so that Nick may enter the public. As he does so, he befriends Sheeni and several other people who Nick knew before. While spending the night with Sheeni on Christmas Eve, she reveals to him that she knows it is him, not Carlotta. He then gets "The best Christmas present a boy could receive," starting a secret relationship with Sheeni.
Faced with homelessness from the loss of the house he had been squatting in, he becomes rich beyond belief when an idea of his, a wart watch, makes it big. His wealth grows further when an elderly neighbor of his Nick's older sister takes a liking to Nick and decides to put him in her will. When she dies Nick is briefly left half a million dollars richer, until his mother's boyfriend, a somewhat corrupt cop, seizes the money.
[edit] Legacy
The book has three sequels. The first is Revolting Youth: The Further Journals of Nick Twisp a book that is roughly the size of one of the three books that make up Youth in Revolt. The second is Young and Revolting: The Continental Journeys of Nick Twisp, and the last book in the series is Revoltingly Young: The Journals of Nick Twisp's Younger Brother, which picks up thirteen years after the events in Young and Revolting.
Additionally, Cut to the Twisp: The Lost Parts of Youth In Revolt and Other Stories features all of the material that was edited out of post 1993 editions of the first three volumes that make up Youth in Revolt, as well as other short works by Payne.
Youth in Revolt was adapted into to a stage play in the 1994 by Carl Hamilton and Bob Warden of Box Car Productions. It had its premier at the Cable Car Theater in San Francisco in 1994. It has also been produced in Denver and several locations throughout Northern California. It is based on the first book, Youth in Revolt.
[edit] Characters
- Nicholas "Nick" Twisp - The 14-year-old protagonist. The novel is told through his journal entries. Nick is a cynical and sex-obsessed teenager who pines for Sheeni Saunders. He creates throughout the story two alter egos: Francois and Carlotta. Francois is the "bad side" and Carlotta is the relatively "feminine side".
- Francois Dillinger - Nick's French bad side.
- Carlotta Ulansky - Nick's feminine side, got the last name from an elderly woman he met at his sister Joanie's apartment building.
- Sheridan "Sheeni" Saunders - A hyper-intelligent 14-year-old girl who is the object of Nick's desire
- Leroy "Lefty" - Nick's best friend who sexually advances faster than Nick. His penis, although more than seven inches in length, is crooked.
- George Twisp - Nick's greedy, sex-obsessed father. He is quick to anger and fond of status symbols such as his BMW.
- Estelle Twisp - Nick's neurotic mother, an employee of the DMV.
- Joanie Twisp - Nick's rebellious and crude 18-year-old sister who lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend Dr. Phillip.
- Mr. Saunders - Sheeni's strict and lieutenant-like father. He also is quick to anger, not fond of Nick, but likes Trent.
- Mrs. Saunders - Sheeni's religious mother, also is not fond of Nick, but she accepts Trent.
- Trent Preston - Nick's arch nemesis, former boyfriend/current friend of Sheeni (with whom she is still in love)
- Lacey - George's curvaceous but dim-witted 19-year-old girlfriend.
- Paul Saunders - Sheeni's older brother. He has the amazing talent of reading Nick's life like a book, as if he knows all the answers; Nick's "oracle." Much of this knowledge perhaps comes from his extensive use of psychedelic drugs including psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
- Jerry - Estelle's boyfriend as the story opens, whom Nick dislikes. He drives trucks professionally.
- Wallace "Wally" Rumpkin - Estelle's second boyfriend, a tall and shy truck driver with encyclopedic trivia knowledge. Despite his Jerry-like career, he is liked by Nick.
- Lance Wescott - Third and final man Estelle has "shanghaied into her bed"; a fascist member of the Oakland PD.
- Frank Sinatra "Fuzzy" DeFalco - A hairy friend of Nick's in Ukiah. His mother is attractive despite her advanced age and attempts to seduce Nick in a trailer.
- Vijay Joshi - Republican Indian who Nick befriends and also gets stabbed in the back by.
- Apurva Joshi - Vijay's sister whom Nick falls for. She is in love with Trent.
- Bernice Lynch - One of the girls that attends the French boarding school in Santa Cruz with Sheeni (used by Nick in his plot to win her back)
- Taggarty - Another of the girls who attend the French boarding school in Santa Cruz with Sheeni (ruins Nick's plot to win her back).
- Dwayne Crampton - The Dim-witted son of George Twisp's live-in maid. Very possibly homosexual, as he drugged and violated Nick
[edit] Film adaption
In 1998, MTV and Fox television worked together on a television show based on the book.[1] A pilot was filmed, but it was never developed further. It has been rumored since 2002 that a full movie adaptation of this book was being planned. In March 2004, a film adaptation of the book was announced. As of August 2006, the books Young and Revolting and Revoltingly Young feature the text, "Watch for the new Nick Twisp movie, coming soon from Dimension Films" on the back cover. The film, based on the novel, will be directed by Miguel Arteta.[2] Michael Cera will be featured in the role of Nick Twisp. Amy Wilken will play Sheeni Saunders.[3] It has been announced that Ray Liotta has been cast as Lance Wescott, and Steve Buscemi as George Twisp. It is scheduled for release on December 12, 2008.
