The Penny Wars

A 17-year-old reaches maturity at the beginning of World War II. The Penny Wars is a novel of youth, at a time when the world seemed young, when right and wrong were poles apart. The year is 1939, and war looms in Europe. To Tyler Bishop, the whole world is about to collapse, and Tyler wants to save it. But he is only 16. So, for the present, he has to confine himself to everyday battles against the ignorance, selfishness, and apathy around him. These battles are The Penny Wars, and they make for some of the most fascinating encounters in modern fiction. Because losing his virginity is even more important to Tyler than saving the world, his adversaries involve a string of females--some young and some not so young. His other foes range from a history teacher to a local bookie, but his chief antagonist is Dr. Wolf Axelrod, a Nabokovian figure newly arrived from the Europe of war and violence. Before Dr. Axelrod appears, Tyler has claims of being the most intelligent and aware person in the community. But in Dr. Axelrod, an admirer of Goethe and an antivaccinationist fervently devoted to proving that the philosophy of Spengler is wrong, Tyler more than meets his match.