Summary

Isaac English is twenty years old and is living in Buell, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. He is smart, small, wispy and easily mistaken for a boy. At the beginning of the novel, Isaac is leaving home after having stolen $4,000 dollars from his father, whom he refers to as the “old man.” His father used to be a steelworker but was laid off as part of the historical disintegration of Pennsylvania's steel industry.

Isaac's plan is to travel to Pittsburgh and then on to California to escape his father and his own frustrating life in Buell. Because steel was at the heart of Buell's economy, the city is now dilapidated and decaying. Isaac first travels to the house of his best friend, 21-year-old Billy Poe. Unlike Isaac, Poe is big and strong and used to be a football prospect. Now, he is unemployed and drinking...