Victor Regina should be perfectly happy in New York City. His novels are selling well, he has a kick-ass agent, and the upcoming Black Party at the exclusive Flamingo club promises to be a cornucopia of gay desire. But New York is hard. The city is gripped by a winter that won't quit, and though he has plenty of dishy friends, there is no lover in the picture. When his agent calls with an offer from Hollywood to adapt his latest novel, Justify My Sins, for a famous director, he jumps at the chance.In "El Lay," the sun is warm, the food is fantastic, the men are plentiful and eager. It's all so easy. So easy, in fact, that Victor begins to suspect there is nothing real about it-not the quick affairs, not the flashy cars and ostentatious architecture, and certainly not the film script or scenario or treatment or whatever the hell it is he is supposed be writing. He begins to long for NYC, hard but real.Noted names and events of the 1970s, '80s, and '90s intermingle with personal triumphs and private tragedies in this roman à clef with a heart. Felice Picano explores the competition between celebrity and integrity, between love and lust, while showcasing the grittiness of Mannhatten and the voluptuous of Hollywood. Through disastrous production meetings, steamy sex clubs, and encounters with friends who grow old, or strange, or both, Victor tries not once, not twice, but three times to find authenticity and contentment in a life that, while perhaps never fully justified, is fully lived.