Chicken

the long version

"Here is a story like no other: The unforgettable chronicle of a season spent walking the razor-sharp line between painful innocence and the allure of the abyss. David Sterry was a wide-eyed son of 1970s suburbia, but within his first week looking for off-campus housing on Sunset Boulevard he was lured into a much darker world - servicing the lonely women of Hollywood by night.". "Chicken - the word is slang for a young male prostitute - revisits this year of living dangerously, in a narrative of dazzling inventiveness and searing candor. Shifting back and forth from tales of Sterry's youth - spent in the awkward bosom of a "normal" but disintegrating family - to his fascinating account of the Neverland of post-sixties sexual excess, Chicken teems with Fellini-esque characters and set pieces worthy of Dionysus. And when the life finally overwhelms Sterry, his retreat from the profession will leave an indelible mark on readers' minds and hearts."--BOOK JACKET.