Seventeen

Summary

William Sylvanus Baxter, a tremulous seventeen-year-old Hamlet in knickerbockers, squanders every coin of his allowance on Lola Pratt, a glittering, gum-cracking siren whose laughter sounds like coins tossed into a tin cup. When the coquette elopes with a moustachioed automobile dealer, William wanders the gas-lamp streets clutching an empty wallet and a heart cratered like a battlefield. May Parcher—barefoot, strawberry-scarred, and armed with a slingshot of memories—appears on his porch at dawn, offers him a stolen peach, and quietly rewrites his epitaph into a love letter.

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old William Sylvanus Baxter has fallen madly in love with young coquette Lola Pratt. After he has spent all his money on the fickle girl, she runs off with an older man. Now heartbroken, William contemplates suicide until May Parcher, a friend from childhood, visits him and decides to fall in love with him.