We first meet Joel Scherzenlieb when he is seventeen years old. He has been in the care of his father since his parents divorced. While working as a student at Scout Camp Joel learns that he will not be returning to his Swiss school, and with that go all his hopes of a college education and a secure career in finance. His father, who worked for the CIA has other plans, and Joel finds himself living with his mother and his older sister Lisa on a struggling farm.

But there are more shocks in store for Joel. He always considered himself heterosexual, yet a chance meeting with, Corey, an old friend from the Scout Camp leads to an intimate night spent together, and sets his mind in turmoil. He tries to deny his feelings, but eventually he must acknowledges that he must be gay.

Three years later we find Joel and Corey living together in New York. But When his sister along with child turn up, she having walked out on her husband, Joel and Corey become inextricably involved. But in trying to help Lisa their own relationship is put in jeopardy.

Joel tells his story with candour and frankness, and does not spare himself in the telling, for he reveals himself with all his faults. There are some very touching moments in the story, especially Joel's account of the occasion when he acknowledges to Corey that he does in fact love him. Surprisingly, and a little disappointingly, we are giving very little information about the first intimacy between Joel and Corey. However overall it is a most satisfying and positive tale, with a conclusion that leaves open any number of possibilities. ( )

From Publishers Weekly
A fresh tone, exuberance and light-handed humor mark this first novel about a homosexual's coming of age in Manhattan. We meet Joel Scherzenlieb at Boy Scout camp, where his CIA agent father has left him to work as a counselor for the summer. Joel doesn't yet know the nature of his sexuality, nor does he find out at camp, since his father soon whisks him off to live at his mother's farm in Virginia. With no money for college, Joel works the farm with his mother, maternal grandmother and sister Liza. Later, he runs into Corey, his only friend from camp days; finding their way to bed, they begin the relationship that's the heart of the book. At the same time, Liza is pursued by another former counselor, Bob. Eventually, Joel and Corey move to New York, where Joel begins to cruise the Village gay bars. One night Liza, who has left Bob, appears at their apartment with her baby; she turns to Joel and Corey for help and to confirm her belief in stable relationships. An irate Bob soon follows, precipitating the story's funny, riveting resolution, involving blackmail, issues of loyalty and considerable conversation about the nature and lastingness of love. Bram's novel is candid (often explicit), wise, humorous and affirmative, with compelling characters who are engagingly human first, and only then straight or gay. First serial to Christopher Street; paperback rights to Holt/Owl; major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
At the beginning, this story of two boys who meet and fall in love at summer camp has the feel of a teen "problem novel." However, the evolution of Joel Scherzenlieb's personality soon emerges as the book's driving force. From a family he describes as a "collection of solitaires"his father a spy, mother a back-to-the-earth nut, sister a failed feminist in a bad marriageJoel has few emotional resources and much training in both self-indulgence and self-criticism. In his feelings of inadequacy and aimlessness, Joel comes up against his lover Corey's seeming success and complacency; we leave the two just as they are learning to build off their differences. Joel is a character without particular talent or ambition made memorable through the skilled depiction of his coming of wisdom. This refreshingly unclaustrophobic gay novel is a mature first effort. Rob Schmieder, Boston
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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It's 1970 and 17-year-old Joel has a summer job at a boy scout camp. He's feeling out of place, not the least because he has spent the last few years in Switzerland. He befriends Corey but the friendship is short-lived as suddenly his father turns up to get him home early, and his bright Harvard future disappears. A few years later he meets Corey again and they become lovers although Joel is not sure if they ever were in love with each other. ( )