Quarry

In White’s 1967 debut, the kids are definitely not alright. As pastoral England swelters through a June heat wave, teens Carter, Todd, and Randy (an “odd, alarming trio” comprised, respectively, of “physical energy, intellectual brilliance, low cunning”) light upon a younger boy and ensconce him in a cave in an abandoned quarry, for reasons seemingly unclear even to themselves. The unnamed boy is a proper lamb, eerily compliant and game to play along, wide-eyed and at his ease. His captors are anything but easy. Surrounded by adults who range from overindulgent to aloof, the teens walk a perilous path, prey to conflicting passions and seeking in vain for boundaries and verities to rebel against. Left to their own devices, they devise their own rite of passage worthy of the Old Testament, or perhaps the New.