The Wampanaki Tales — James Howard Kunstler

A mordant novel set in a summer camp for boys in the early 1960s, the days of President Kennedy, Mickey Mantle's Yankees, doo-wop music on the radio, and boys gone feral in the New Hampshire woods. Boarding a magical Pullman train, Leon Blumberg and his bunkmates at Camp Wampanaki leave civilization behind in New York City. Their summer adventures include an introduction to county fair strip shows, cheating at all competitive sports, cadging drinks from their counselor's rum bottle stashed in the tank behind the toilet, and blowing things up.

This was James Howard Kunstler's first novel, published in the late 1970s, some time before he became better known as a social critic and author of the acclaimed non-fiction books The Geography of Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and Too Much Magic. The book was optioned thirteen times by movie producers but never filmed.