Reno the Crook

Lane Belding, 14, needs to get in trouble, any kind will do. Without that, he’ll look like the bright, popular, A-student Palo Alto preacher’s kid he is. If he gets in trouble, at school he’ll be “okay.”

But there is a problem—his strict widower Episcopal Minister father won’t tolerate trouble.

And his rebellious secret self—his inner “Reno”—is hungry to live life. Chafing at his father’s prohibitions, Reno wants to experiment with smoking cigarettes, finding out about girls, drinking beer, sneaking out with his friends. His father forbids it all. Lane’s coming of age in the conformist Eisenhower Fifties is filled with suspense, conflict, crippling punishment.

And as Lane and his friends progress through school, their explorative young lives become more and more complex. Teen pregnancy, destructive drinking, vandalism and time at the police station come into play, far outstripping Rev. Belding’s brittle reality.