"When the girl he yearns for dumps him, Eddie takes up with a local named Elena. It's convenient, nothing more. They've both grown up and live in a part of Long Island that's not the Gold Coast or the tony South Shore. Sleazy canal dives and flaking amusement parks and boardwalks is where they hang out with his childhood pal, Larry Louperino, and his girl.".

"They don't live on the water, go on family vacations, or away to college. They aren't black, Jewish, rich or even middle class. His mom keeps house, and his estranged father freelances photos for a skin magazine. Eddie and Larry are townies - "hitters," in local parlance. They did their time in school until they graduated and then they went to work: Larry for his mobbed up uncle, Eddie slaving in a union job at the supermarket and dreaming of sailing away, on the boat his grandfather left him.".

"What Eddie hasn't anticipated in his life is love. What he also hasn't anticipated is getting arrested. Worse, the person who comes to his aid is his father."--BOOK JACKET.