The local man and the hustler
Two adult gatekeepers who reveal how adolescent desire can create vulnerability to people with greater knowledge and power.
To profit from or participate in a secret encounter whose risks fall most heavily on the adolescent.
The book
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeA casually charming local man takes money after promising the narrator a trip to New York, then later introduces him to a hustler. Together they open a commercial adult sexual world the boy only partly understands.
How the book draws them
- Casually charmingThe local man makes unreliability look easy and sociable.
- CommercialMoney and access shape the encounter from the beginning.
- More experiencedBoth adults understand a world the narrator does not.
- TransientThey pass out of the story after exposing his vulnerability.
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