A sequel to the author’s critically acclaimed Delphinium title,
One of These Things First
,
The Greta Garbo Home for Wayward Boys and Girls
is a poison-pen, love letter to the end of an era—Manhattan during the decadent, late 1970s.
Picking up where he left off at the end of his widely praised debut memoir,
, Gaines recounts his hilarious, sometimes poignant attempt to forge a writing career and a successful love life in the gay world of the 1970s. He has limited success until he falls in love with an older woman dying of cancer. Meanwhile, he serendipitously begins a career as a writer when he meets a former child evangelist, and with naïve chutzpah, manages to land a book deal that leads to a whirlwind career as a biographer, rock and roll columnist, and
roman à clef
novelist who writes a book with a Studio 54 bartender that brings the world down around them. From inside the entertainment business in New York and L.A. to inside the publishing world, Gaines narrates a life of escapades and adventures and searching for love in all the wrong places. After hitting rock bottom, he writes a book about the Beatles that ends up on the
New York Times
bestseller list, leading to popular esteem and a feeling of momentary redemption.