Meet aspiring playwright Leonardo, twenty-four years old and fresh out of graduate school, arrives in New York City in the 1990s dreaming of Broadway. He also wants a husband and a family—which is not yet legal. He flops as a cater-waiter and a student throws a desk at him when he tries substitute teaching. His friend Julia helps him land a job at Bar Plato in the East Village. People-pleaser Leonardo can hardly contain his enthusiasm. Bar Plato is owned by the popular, fabulously hip film star, Jack Fresh, and his wife, Mara, only to discover they are cocaine addicts and abusive in every way imaginable.

"Dark, funny, sharp, intelligent and real-unpretentious, with a big heart and deep soul, Picardi writes from the perspective of the outsider, the out-of-town newcomer to New York, exposing the hypocrisy and mendacity of New York ambition and greed. John Picardi is Dawn Powell's soulmate."—Kate Christensen, author of In The Drink, The Epicure's Lament, The Astral, Blue Plate Special, How to Cook A Moose, The Last Cruise, 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Great Man