Outside Providence

Outside Providence  
Author(s) Peter Farrelly
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Autobiographical novel
Publisher Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication date April 1988
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 205 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN ISBN 0-87113-222-2 (paperback edition)
OCLC Number 16646461
Dewey Decimal 813/.54 19
LC Classification PS3556.A7725 O98 1988

Outside Providence is an English language novel by writer, producer, and director Peter Farrelly, published in 1988.

Plot summary

Largely an autobiographical tale, the novel revolves around Timothy "Dildo" Dunphy, a ne'er-do-well from the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which borders Providence. After Dunphy falls in with a bad element at home, his father, a widower, exiles him to the fictional Cornwall Academy (a thin guise for Kent School located near Kent, Connecticut).

Over time, Dunphy struggles with issues including class structure, loyalty, first love, and his ongoing issues with his father. Ironically, Dunphy finds that his fellow prep-school students merely represent a wealthier, more polished class of delinquent than the friends he has left at home.

The novel was Farrelly's fledgling effort, and served as his thesis when he graduated from the creative writing program at Columbia University.

Film adaptation

Farrelly turned his novel into a screenplay and a film adaptation of the book was released in 1999.