Homeboy

Seth Morgan's frenzied, addictive walk on the wild side of 1980s San Francisco

When strip-joint barker Joe Speaker unwittingly steals a sixty-nine-carat blue diamond, he becomes enmeshed in a blackmail-and-murder conspiracy that begins with the savage slaying of high-priced call girl Gloria Monday. Suddenly Joe's a wanted man. Hunted by a murderous pimp known as Baby Jewels Moses and a relentless homicide cop named Tarzon, Joe ends up taking the rap and getting sentenced to three years. But it's in prison that the real trouble begins.

An adrenaline-pumped, hallucinogenic descent into the lower depths, Homeboy is a tough, eye-opening look at San Francisco during the AIDS epidemic. Part memoir and part richly conceived work of imagination, this gritty, rambunctious novel reads like pure poetry and celebrates an uncommon talent at the height of his storytelling powers.



About the Author
Seth Morgan (1949-1990) was an American novelist whose sole published title, Homeboy, received much critical acclaim. Morgan drew from his own experiences with San Francisco drug culture and prison in order to write what the New York Times called "an unnerving and utterly persuasive rendition of hell."

As a young boy, Morgan attended many elite private schools, including St. Bernard's School in New York and the American School in Switzerland. He also briefly attended the University of California, Berkeley, before dropping out and moving in with singer Janis Joplin. They became engaged shortly before she died. At the time of his own death in a motorcycle accident, Morgan was under contract for a second novel, set in New Orleans and titled Mambo Mephiste.