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

Main article: Outside Providence (film)

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