Drew Cushing · Literary Fiction · Forthcoming

Vassar
Boy

A novel · Vassar College, 1985–86

A fictional account of youth, glamour, and the particular freedom of being openly, defiantly oneself — in a world before cell phones, before the internet, before everything that comes next.

About the Story About the book →
1985 – 1986
Vassar
Boy
Drew Cushing
About the Novel

Fall 1985

Vassar Boy is a fictional account of life at Vassar College in the 1980s — specifically, the academic year of 1985–1986. Introduced by the author in the first person, the story is then told in the third person. In good New Narrative tradition, the novel features a character named Drew, and includes other actual names used fictionally.

All other character names bear no resemblance to any people at Vassar College during this time and are entirely fictional in nature — as is Drew and the entire book.

A rollicking romp through sophomore year that reimagines Mary McCarthy’s iconic ensemble for a wilder, funnier, and decidedly queerer era. From the Aula to the Mug, from the Palladium to BoyBar — Vassar Boy revels in small scandals, casual affairs, and the drama of privileged youth unmoored from consequence.

Genre
Literary Fiction
Setting
Vassar College, 1985–86
Length
60,000 Words
Tradition
New Narrative
Status
Forthcoming
Publisher
Seeking representation
About the Story

The Story

My second year at Vassar, they moved up the start of classes to Labor Day. Every year before, classes had been scheduled to allow us all to enjoy the last long weekend of the summer properly ensconced by the shore or in the country. We were outraged of course but despite shared boasts and threats of arriving late, we all obediently arrived on time. The consequences — lost slots in full classes, missed syllabi, and most importantly the social setback of missing the pre-class parties — were more than we were willing to risk. And so we returned for our second year, new fabulous furnishings for our rooms, chic outfits and tall tales from the summer in tow.

Unlike our first year, there was no three day orientation (subsequently curtailed due to some new arrivals never making it from the parties to classes), and so we were invited to arrive no earlier than Friday and no later than Sunday. By Saturday afternoon we were all back and unpacked, furniture re-installed, mini-fridges and liquor cabinets stocked. Saturday evening the official party in the Aula and unofficial party in the Mug were packed. Seasoned sophomores, we made sure to get our Mug bracelets early (so we could skip the line later) and duck out to the Aula around ten to be sure we weren’t missing anything.

Ford was my best friend at Vassar. I’m not exactly sure how or why we became best friends but somehow, somewhere amidst the chaos of our first year we found in each other exactly what we each needed in a friend; social standing, acid wit, and the ability to drink all night and still arrive on time to our morning classes.

Handsome, beautiful really but I didn’t see it then, well bred — or well brought up, I think dogs are well bred — faultlessly polite when he was on his good behavior, exceptionally well dressed, smart, talented and with plenty of money. Ford was admired, desired and resented all at once and I loved him for it.

Ford was a connoisseur of consumables. Ford knew quality, insisted on the best and almost never paid retail. A consummate bargain hunter, Ford flew to London for a Burberry sale and bought two overcoats and half a dozen other plaid things just so he could say he saved more on his bounty than the airfare cost. We love airfare wars. With his mother he stalked the weekend auctions in the Smoky Mountains, bidding on the perfect items for the well furnished dorm room. Just before returning for the semester he made a quick trip to Montreal to pick up über expensive cognac duty free and cartons of cigarettes.

Ford’s smart social observations precisely dissecting his peers to reveal their every flaw with great humor are what first attracted me to him. Ford wasn’t richer than all of his classmates — in fact his trust fund was modest in comparison to some. But while others had to wait, making do on a generous allowance, for a future magic birthday, 21 or god forbid 25! — Ford had gotten his money at 18 direct from his dear old Auntie. And so it was his to spend as he chose. It was how he paid for Vassar when Da refused to pay for “some damn Northern Sissy School.” Ford spent freely if not carelessly, knowing that at 21 he would get a great deal more from Mummy so long as he graduated.

— from Vassar Boy, Drew Cushing
Dramatis Personae

A Select List of Characters

Ford

Tall, fabulously thin with a wasp waist and perfectly proportioned features. Thick brown curly hair in need of regular visits to Sassoon for a taming cut. Rich enough with his own money from an aunt and even richer from his family’s successes in various genteel industries. A poor Southern farm boy when it helped, Ford had been thrown out of several prep schools and been forced to graduate from a Boston area last-chance school. He came to Vassar because Mummy had and Da hated the idea. By the time Ford came to Vassar, Da — who had transformed his father’s small delivery service into a nationwide fleet of trucks, then added air and ocean transit and real estate leverage across the country — had untold riches and power.

Mary Ann Kravitz
A.K.A. Makra

A good old fashioned Connecticut girl. A blonde when she was a little girl, she was now a blonde with a little help from a bottle. Makra and Drew had known each other for years — she’d actually gone to prep with Drew. At prep, Makra had seemed to Drew to be exotic and artistic. But Drew had mistaken Makra’s daring wardrobe (no Talbots in sight) for a kind of exotica. In fact Makra was just committing a basic form of rebellion aided by her hometown proximity to Manhattan. At Vassar, Makra kept the same look, which was not nearly as exotic amidst the various student style choices. Makra was extremely committed to her art and her vodka (Stoli, of course).

Jason

Cute in that tall plain preppy sort of way. Drew’s roommate freshman year — Drew was initially intrigued and then bored by Jason. Jason came from solid Connecticut stock, or at least had been adopted by solid Connecticut stock. He’s a committed preppy, insisting on plaids, plaids and more plaids. Drew swears he even coordinates his boxers with his sheets so as not to sleep in Blackwatch on Campbell or vice versa. Jason was perpetually polite and kind to a fault.

Nancy Jane Pruit
A.K.A. Prissy

An upstate New York girl. Way upstate. Prissy insisted she loved upstate and missed it terribly. Otherwise Prissy was a normal if excessively prudish girl.

Drew

A Connecticut boy with an impeccable lineage (Mayflower on one side and Charlemagne on the other), an unstoppable libido, a penchant for big old American cars and a talent for chameleon-like transformation.

Todd

A sexy Chicago boy whose hair changes colors at whim.

Sally

A South American heiress, Sally wants for nothing but the perfect body and eternal social success. She has no material wants. Her father Raul comes from a long line of Brazilian cacao growers — for her sweet sixteenth, Raul gave her one of the largest cacao plantations in Ilhéus, the cacao capital of Brazil. Ursula, Sally’s mother, a Swiss banking heiress, funnels funds to so many secret accounts she has stacks of red leather ledgers to keep track of them all.

Drew Cushing
About the Author

Drew Cushing

The bastard son of New Narrative and Language Poetry, Drew Cushing is a novelist, playwright and publisher based in San Francisco, CA and Norfolk, CT. His writing has a delicious way of disturbing others.

His writing has appeared in The Fabulist, ZYZZYVA, Cathay, Laundry Pen, Dodie Bellamy’s Nars Orgasm Zine: A Covidian Cohort Writing from Dodie Bellamy’s 2020 Workshops, The Marjorie Wood Gallery, Second Floor Projects, 580 Split and other publications. His plays have been produced in New York, San Francisco, and Providence.

At San Francisco State University he studied with Aaron Shurin, Robert Gluck, Dodie Bellamy, Camille Roy, and Brigid Mullen. Drew holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State and an AB in Dramatic Literature from Vassar College. He is a graduate of Trinity Repertory Company and Conservatory, where he learned Viewpoints from Anne Bogart.

He publishes under the imprint Bent Boy Books.

drewcushing.com bentboybooks.com
Get in Touch

Contact Drew

For literary inquiries, press, agent queries, or general correspondence about Vassar Boy.