Book Description
In 1979 Billy McEwan met Tammi Honig. He does not save her life, but perhaps she saves his. Thanks to her, he enjoys (or experiences, at least) many adventures on New York's Morningside Heights, back in the days when the City was still dangerous, dirty, and romantic, back in the days of punk rock, Thai stick, and Checker cabs. Billy and Tammi eventually far beyond the boundaries of the Upper West Side. Sometimes together, more often separately, they venture far south of West 72nd Street and far north of West 125th Street, even as far afield as Atlanta and the San Fernando Valley.
From the Author
This book is my version of the Great American Novel. The end result may not necessarily be the great American novel, but it is certainly a large American novel. It is a sprawling 600-plus-page epic of life in the early 1980s, centered around the oddly chaste love affair between Billy McEwan and Tammi Honig.
I might add that at least one of the major characters is Canadian, so this does qualify as a Great North American Novel.
One of my former teachers once said I was heavily influenced by Proust, even though I have only read a tiny bit of Proust's work. I have read a lot of Kerouac and Nabokov, so I guess that's where the Proust influence came in. A more direct influence was Bret Easton Ellis. I read "Less Than Zero" when it came out, which was two decades ago, and I said "I can do better than that!" And although his book is not bad, and stands the test of time, in the end mine turned out to be better. So there!