Loon Lake (novel)

Loon Lake is a 1980 novel by E. L. Doctorow. The plot of the novel is mostly set on Loon Lake in the Adirondacks during the Depression. The novel is one of the more experimental works of Doctorow, incorporating a great variety of different techniques, many of which are used for preventing the reader from an easy understanding of the narration: traditional narratives, stream of consciousness, poetry, mixed up chronology.

Loon Lake of the title is also the name of a retreat for millionaire industrialist F. W. Bennett where the drifter Joe temporarily finds home, after being attacked by the wild dogs surrounding the estate. In Loon Lake Joe finds the other main characters of the novel, Clara who is a woman seen by Joe through the windows of a private railway carriage, and the poet Warren Penfield.