This is the story of a highly sexualised 11 year old blonde boy who accompanies a muscle-man for hire (who attacks women for their ex-husbands gratification or revenge). The blonde boy who is actually the narrator can only be said to fulfil the willing role of a catamite to various men throughout the story and he has a bizarre habit of being obsessed with eating shit. No other way to say it, sorry.
Yes, it is confronting and some of the scenes might disgust most people, but it's shock value is one of the tactics the author uses to give us an insight into the lives of the characters that we may never otherwise truly understand. As other commentators here have said: Get through the book to the end and you will finally understand it's meaning. Oh, and keep an open mind.

This is a genuinely well written story of a 12 - 13 year old boy's friendship with an older man. The boy and the man meet on the beach: The man - a photographer keen to photograph interesting people, and the boy - a lonely adolescent bored with his dull existence looking for someone to befriend him. The boy develops a crush on the man, and after posing for some erotic shots, they embrace in mutual and loving intimacy. The relationship lasts for a long period. The boy's parents tolerate it and it only comes to an end when the man moves from the area and the boy must choose between his friend & lover and the loyalty he feels toward his ailing father and mother. It reveals (kind of autobiographically) how the author sees the potential for intergenerational intimacy to be beneficial to adolescent boys, if society can simply overcome it's subjective moral judgementalness. It is not pornographic, although some of the intimate moments are described in detail and may be confronting to prudish conservative readers who have hang-ups about sex and sexuality.