33 Snowfish
Encyclopedia
33 Snowfish is a 2003 novel by Adam Rapp
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him, in a dilapidated house in Rockdale, Illinois
. After overhearing that he was to star in a snuff movie, Custis steals a small pistol and escapes through a hole in the wall.
While hiding from Motley's crew and begging for quarters in a video arcade
at the Joliet Mall
, Custis spots Boobie (whose real name is Darrin Flowers), a strange boy with black eyes and a single painted fingernail. Custis decides to follow Boobie into Crazy Lou's Woods, a private woodland supposedly owned by an ex-military cat farmer. Custis and Boobie soon become friends.
Custis, having no home, and Boobie, who has an unstable relationship with his parents, set up a makeshift home in the woods with a tent and steal electricity from a nearby paper factory. Soon they are joined by Curl, Boobie's 14-year-old girlfriend who is addicted to drugs and supports herself as a prostitute, and finally Boobie's baby brother, whom Boobie abducts after murdering his parents.
The four of them take to the road in a stolen Buick Skylark
to flee the police who are searching for Boobie, engaging in dumpster diving
, robbery and begging in various Chicago suburbs along the way.
Adam Rapp
Adam Rapp is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, musician and film director. His play Red Light Winter was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006.-Early life:...
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Plot introduction
The main character, Custis, is a 10-year-old orphan boy living with his "owner" Bob Motley, who sexually abusesChild sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
him, in a dilapidated house in Rockdale, Illinois
Rockdale, Illinois
Rockdale is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,888 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Rockdale is located at...
. After overhearing that he was to star in a snuff movie, Custis steals a small pistol and escapes through a hole in the wall.
While hiding from Motley's crew and begging for quarters in a video arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
at the Joliet Mall
Westfield Louis Joliet
Westfield Louis Joliet Mall, formerly/informally known as Louis Joliet Mall, is a shopping mall in Joliet, Illinois. It is located at 1118 Mall Loop Drive, Joliet. Its four anchor stores are Carson Pirie Scott, JCPenney, Macy's and Sears. The mall opened in 1978 with Sears and Marshall Field &...
, Custis spots Boobie (whose real name is Darrin Flowers), a strange boy with black eyes and a single painted fingernail. Custis decides to follow Boobie into Crazy Lou's Woods, a private woodland supposedly owned by an ex-military cat farmer. Custis and Boobie soon become friends.
Custis, having no home, and Boobie, who has an unstable relationship with his parents, set up a makeshift home in the woods with a tent and steal electricity from a nearby paper factory. Soon they are joined by Curl, Boobie's 14-year-old girlfriend who is addicted to drugs and supports herself as a prostitute, and finally Boobie's baby brother, whom Boobie abducts after murdering his parents.
The four of them take to the road in a stolen Buick Skylark
Buick Skylark
The Buick Skylark was a passenger car produced by the Buick division of General Motors. The model was made in six production runs. In each run, the car design varied dramatically due to changing technology and tastes, as well as new standards implemented over the years.-1953–1954:Introduced to mark...
to flee the police who are searching for Boobie, engaging in dumpster diving
Dumpster diving
Dumpster diving is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential trash to find items that have been discarded by their owners, but that may be useful to the dumpster diver.-Etymology and alternate names:...
, robbery and begging in various Chicago suburbs along the way.
Characters
- Custis – A 10-year-old homeless boy who escaped from a child pornographyChild pornographyChild pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
operation. Custis carries a loaded handgun (a "gat") with three bullets and a broken trigger. He suffers from a seizure-like condition that he refers to as "migration (sic) headaches" which cause him to black out and wake up in different locations. He has frequent dreams about a mysterious individual called Big Tiny, who was said to have been his mother. - Curl – A 14-year-old girl from Bolingbrook, IllinoisBolingbrook, IllinoisBolingbrook is a large village in Will and DuPage Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2010 US Census, the population is 73,366...
, who used to live with her disabled aunt Frisco who forced her to turn tricks in their apartment. Curl is kind-hearted, acting as an older sister to Custis, as well as extremely superstitious, believing that she had met Boobie because she sat on top of a pile of Chex cerealChexChex is a brand of breakfast cereal, introduced in 1937 and currently manufactured by General Mills. It was originally owned by Ralston Purina, and the Chex name reflects the "checkerboard square" logo of Ralston Purina. The product line was part of the spinoff of the Ralston portion of Ralston...
on the first of May. She expresses a desire to settle down and marry both Custis and Boobie. - Boobie (Darrin Flowers) – A 17-year-old boy from Joliet, IllinoisJoliet, IllinoisJoliet is a city in Will and Kendall Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. As of the 2010 census, the city was the fourth-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 147,433. It continues to be Illinois' fastest growing...
who is a violent pyromaniacPyromaniaPyromania in more extreme circumstances can be an impulse control disorder to deliberately start fires to relieve tension or for gratification or relief. The term pyromania comes from the Greek word πῦρ . Pyromania and pyromaniacs are distinct from arson, the pursuit of personal, monetary or...
. Boobie rarely speaks, choosing to express himself via his drawings. He is possessive of Curl and extremely protective of Custis, with whom he shares a special friendship. Boobie eventually murders his parents and abducts his infant brother, and goes on the run from the police in a stolen Buick SkylarkBuick SkylarkThe Buick Skylark was a passenger car produced by the Buick division of General Motors. The model was made in six production runs. In each run, the car design varied dramatically due to changing technology and tastes, as well as new standards implemented over the years.-1953–1954:Introduced to mark...
. - Boobie's brother – An unnamed infant who sleeps in a gutted Magnavox TVMagnavoxMagnavox is a US electronics company founded by Edwin Pridham and Peter L. Jensen, who invented the moving-coil loudspeaker in 1915 at their lab in Napa, California. They formed Magnavox in 1917 in order to market their inventions....
in the back of Boobie's car. He has blue eyes and an odd seam down his forehead, for which he is thought to be unintelligent or defective by the others. He is regarded as a likely source of income if he can be sold.
Release details
- 2003, USA, Candlewick Press (ISBN 0-7636-1874-8), Pub date ? March 2003, hardback (First edition)
- 2006, USA, Candlewick Press (ISBN 0-7636-2917-0), Pub date ? March 2006, paperback