Pretirement

Abstract

This thesis includes the first seven chapters of an original creative work, a humorous romance novel titled Pretirement. The novel’s protagonist, Drew, is a thirty-year-old Massachusetts transplant in Los Angeles. Disillusioned with his university administrator job, frustrated by a lack of romantic prospects, and perplexed by a worsening inability to taste, Drew decides to “retire.” He moves in with his actually-retired parents, who live in a small Cape Cod village. Although Drew aims to live as free of responsibility and entanglements as possible, his family and his acquaintances, both old and new, keep him socially engaged, forcing him to acknowledge and address his physical and emotional wellbeing. The novel is a first-person narrative exploring a number of themes, including language and religion. The most prominent theme is “the false promise of place,” the notion that setting alone is insufficient in providing personal fulfillment. Drew moved to Los Angeles to carve out his own identity outside the shadow of his large family. Upon realizing he has failed there, he returns to Massachusetts to disappear among the other “retirees” in his parents’ town. Despite his worst efforts, he becomes just as occupied and challenged as he was out west. However, Drew now has support and potential for growth provided not by Cape Cod, but by the people close to him there. This is the false promise of place at work: Drew must concede that a city or town or coast cannot fully define itself without the people who shape its character. Only in his relationships with those people can Drew find identity and purpose.