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Overview
T. C. Boyle’s story “Greasy Lake” debuted in The Paris Review in 1982 and was published in Greasy Lake and Other Stories in 1985
. The coming-of-age story features a nineteen-year-old protagonist whose fun night out with buddies takes such a bad turn that his understanding of the world no longer makes sense to him. The story’s title comes from Bruce Springsteen’s 1973 song “Spirit in the Night,” in which young people gather at Greasy Lake to party, but in this story—which Boyle has called a “riff” on the song—the anticipated night of partying ends in destruction.Read a full story summary, a full story analysis, and explanations of important quotes from “Greasy Lake.”
