Jerome Dubinsky, a white man, has had a deep love affair and a torrid

sex affair with Lavonne Campbell, a black woman with whom he lived for

18 months. He has also loved and accepted Lavonne's young boy,

Bobo, as if his own. (There is, of course, no sexual angle in that

relationship).

But Bobo has died in a traffic accident and this has eventually resulted

in the break-up of his mother's relationship with Jerome, Finally,

Lavonne moved to Boston (from Brooklyn) to accept a new job. Since then,

Jerome has lost confidence and has become virtually impotent.

But tonight Jerome has forced himself to go out and terminate his

temporary celibacy. In a pick-up bar he has met Beatrice who has

accepted his invitation to his apartment.

Jerome is intent on seduction, but his efforts are awkward and

ineffectual. (The alcohol he has ingested at the club doesn't help.) Out

of frustration, and in his attempt to achieve an erection, he brings

back to mind and relives some of his more notable sexual adventures from

before his cohabitation with Lavonne. Eventually, he achieves erection

and is able to make love.

After, he falls into a deep sleep and has a strange dream in which helps

him understand his relationship with Lavonne and why it couldn't survive

Bobo's death. When he wakes up, Beatrice has left to go to work and he

finds a note on the bed. He feels a return of confidence – sexual and

psychological – and his now ready to enter into real relationships with

women. (Since it is written in a stream-of-consciousness style, the book

doesn't strictly follow the chronology of the above description.)

BUT WHO ARE HIGAMUS AND HOGAMUS?