Kevin is a fashion photographer with a stalled career, gorgeous looks, and no future -- irrefutable proof that life is not fair. Then fate intervenes when he meets and seduces Hollywood's most eligible gay bachelor, Brad Sherwood, a multimedia mogul who's rich beyond belief.

All Brad needs to make his life complete is someone to adore -- and to adore him in return. When he finds Kevin, he is sure his life is finally perfect. For Kevin, the affair is great fun -- until he finds himself inconveniently falling in love. But since life is unfair, the doting pair soon learns that there is a great distance between the hot tub and a happy ending.

Interwoven with the adventures of Kevin and Brad are those of Kevin's roommate Leon, who, like every other gay man in Hollywood, is in lust with Kevin; of Brad's friend Rob, a former skating star who now produces ice extravaganzas; and of Kim, a physical fitness trainer from Australia who uses Rob as his entry into Hollywood society, only to find in Leon the perfect way to make a satisfying exit.

Fresh, fun, and poignant, California Screaming marks the auspicious debut of novelist Doug Guinan, and is a must for gay men on all coasts, and for anyone looking for a flashy, irresistible read.

Amazon.com Review
Hollywood has long been a target of satirical fiction, from Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run? and John O'Hara's The Big Laugh to Michael Tolkin's The Player and Dennis Hensley's Misadventures in the (213). All that ego, glitz, and enormous lack of talent is just too deliciously bad to go unpunished. Doug Guinan's California Screaming is a nonstop cavalcade of comic invention and gentle invective that sends up Tinseltown, movies, male beauty, outing, body culture, social climbing, conniving, and the closet. With a plot that throws All About Eve and "Apartment 3G" into a blender with ingredients from a Feydeau farce, Guinan manages to hit most of his targets with deadly accuracy and even allows his characters some tender moments along the way. Never afraid to go over the top and always knowing when to stop, California Screaming is a perfect pop cultural artifact; like the most exquisite example of camp, it suggests the innate worth of the absurdities and excesses of contemporary life even as it wickedly ridicules them. --Michael Bronski