Arthur has one last chance to live a carefree summer before he gets a serious job and has to be responsible. He is also trying to keep a low profile about his family lineage … his father is involved in the Jewish Mafia. As the story begins he is introduced to some intriguing characters at a party. He becomes friendly with Art and a girl named Phlox. Things get complicated when Arthur begins dating Phlox and Art develops a jealousy. It is soon obvious that Art is in love with Arthur. Arthur who admires Art's style becomes curious about same-sex affairs. This tryst doesn't last long, since Phlox isn't willing to share Arthur. Jane is the beautiful sophisticated type and seemingly mismatched to Cleveland. She doesn't interact much with the story, but often appears in the thoughts of the male characters. Cleveland drives a motorcycle … a tough guy who makes money as a collector for loan sharks. Cleveland wants to escalate his status as a criminal and is trying to join the mafia. He wants Arthur to connect him with the higher echelons in his father’s crime organization.

There are some descriptive scenes that I found to be a bit raunchy and lost interest in the story at several points. I think Chabon spent too much time on character development and less on plot development. Even so, Chabon does know how to weave characters and motives together despite their differences. I read from the author’s notes on the book that his inspiration was Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and parts of his story were loosely autobiographical. Having only seen the movie on Fitzgerald’s book, I am even more intrigued and will definitely read the novel it was based on. One redeeming statement Arthur makes at the end of Chabon’s novel is that he tends to exaggerate greatly. With that in mind, I can imagine that Arthur’s thoughts and actions were amplified to add shock value. Maybe Chabon thinks this technique will lure in readers, but for me I was left disgusted more than once.