The narrator of the novella, Boys, is a thirteen-year-old Chris, a member of a small gang that includes his two friends, Frank and Joey. The novella poignantly charts Chris's involvement with a girl named Lisa, his fascination with a pornographic magazine, the building of a boys only tree house, his traumatized relationships with Frank and Joey, and the disappearance of his sister Jenny. The twelve stories in On Monday proceed chronologically from a Monday to a Tuesday morning. Each story highlights a different character's experiences with parents, friends, teachers, the expectations of...

Set in 1966, these stories re-create the world of lower-middle-class adolescent boys coming of age in upstate New York.