The return to the progess of his young, unnamed narrator whom we first met in 'A Boy's Own Story'.
The narrator has moved from the Midwest to New York, emerging from the tragic comedy of adolescence into the tentative confidence of early adulthood. His life revolves around Maria, a painter who combines intellectual rigour, leftist politics and romantic bohemianism with an ambitious sexuality; and Lou, poet and advertising copywriter, drug addict and a guru of sensuality.
At the heart of the novel are the upheavls in attitudes and beliefs that occured during the tumultuous years from the late 1950s to 1969. Scenes of sexual intensity are juxtaposed with family struggles, intellectual debate and the passionate exploration of friendship.
