The Mad Cook of Pymatuning

published by Berkley

(2005)

ISBN: 978-0-425-21422-0

06.22.2009

The Mad Cook of Pymatuning by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt is a coming-of-age story about senior camper, Jerry Muller, set at a boys’ camp in the 1950s.

Jerry has been coming to Camp Seneca for years. At the end of school each year, he looks forward to summer starting so that he can join his friends at camp. A year before going off to college, he becomes a senior camper and is excited about his last year at camp. Little does he know that the camp has undergone some changes since he was there last; and not the good kind.

The summer starts off a little rocky. The first day in camp, there is not only a fight, but a new employee named Buck is introduced as the camp’s Indian advisor. Right away, Jerry suspects something is off about this new employee but isn’t sure quite what it is. Though, as the summer progresses and strange things start to happen in camp and the Forbidden Woods, Jerry starts to put two-and-two together…things are not always what people tell you there are – which he finds out first hand.

This book is very well written. The suspense, plot and characters are all tightly wrapped together. There wasn’t much ‘action’ per say, until three-fourths of the way through the book. But, when the action and blood-shed did start, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt didn’t let up until the very end.

Overall, a great coming-of-age story and although it was set in the 1950s, it is written in a way that people from all generations can enjoy it and be able to reflect on their own youth.