Vision Quest is a
young adult novel written by
Terry Davis, first published in 1979. In first-person, present-tense narrative, it tells the story of a few months in the life of Louden Swain, a high school wrestler in
Spokane, Washington who is cutting weight and working toward the state championships. The book takes its title from the
vision quest ritual of some Native American Indian tribes, of going into the wilderness alone to 'discover who you are and who your people are and how you fit into the circle of birth and growth and death and rebirth.'
John Irving called it "the truest novel about growing up since
The Catcher in the Rye."