Book Description

Two years divorced, struggling between making art or porn, reclusive Eli lands in a tragicomic drama of sex, obsession and transgender romping. Stuck between hotshots and hookers, he describes his life as "living in a mayonnaise jar." Occupying a single pad off Sunset, he nurtures loneliness watching silent movies like "Lulu" starring Louise Brooks. Surviving as a part-time photographer, photo lab worker, and part-time pizza slinger, Eli hungers for full-time commitment. When sexy, blonde, wannabe-star Shana Sands arrives, arguing over pizza, Eli mistakes her weird "Startrek" contacts for real eyes, and what begins as a photo shoot throws Eli into a world he never anticipated. Shana isn't all glamour: she suffers an incurable sleep and brain disorder that hampers working, driving, cooking, laughing, being shocked or surprised. She lives on pills, a war against addiction; but withdrawals are plagued by imagined aliens entering her belly button. Eli explodes sexually with Shana though orgasms offer pitfalls: blackouts. Pregnant after the first night, she confesses past rapes, even by her brother. Are these dreams from her brain's inability to handle the drugs she cannot live without? Her star-chase is financed by parents in Nevada. She hates control freaks; she is Holly Golightly with excess baggage. Keeping Eli ignorant of her previous affairs, she seeks total love from him, knowing his hunger. She crowds his life with thrift-shop finds, her sex diaries, and vintage duds . She wears an old coat once worn by Joan Crawford. Despite devotion, her secrets create an undertow as she side-steps marriage, yet assures Eli he'll never have to struggle for money, shoot porn or sling pizza. Thepregnancy ends in a miscarriage on the bathroom floor. More possibly follow, though all offspring are candidates for her disorders. TV sitc