Michael Boloker

Camp Harmony Michael Boloker

Benjamin 'Big' Traub, young Korean War veteran, takes a job as driver at Camp Harmony expecting to spend a summer of fun and light work. Instead he encounters trouble and has conflicts with several staff members involving their cruelty, abuse of campers, bigotry and pedophilia. Despite these problems, he becomes romantically involved with the camp doctor, Lani Welch, helps a youngster, Mickey Davis, cope with the recent death of his father, and makes friendships with counselors and campers who are trying to cope in this fiercely competitive atmosphere. Big must make the choice of involving himself in these struggles and jeopardizing his position or ignoring them. His dilemma leads to an anguishing series of incidents and consequences climaxing in the events of July 29th, the anniversary of an unsolved murder committed 30 years earlier, when campers must walk down the Old Harmony Road as a test of their courage. Camp Harmony is a powerful novel of self-discovery and coming of age set in the supposedly innocent atmosphere of a boys' summer camp.