"Now, in Jack of Hearts, Joseph Hansen brings Nathan back for a second tender, funny, achingly truthful coming-of-age novel. The year is 1941, the place a small California foothill town. Nathan, at age seventeen, bewildered by sex but sure he wants to be a writer, falls in among a little-theater crowd he hopes will stage his first play, and learns from them painful lessons in growing up." "From Nathan's ineffectual parents, Alma the fortune-teller and Frank the out-of-work musician, to Kate McCracken, the raffish cook at Moon's cafe, where the journalism and theater students gather for breakfast; from Kenneth Stone, the lonely teacher whispered to be a Nazi spy, to wealthy Desmond Foley, in whose sunlit swimming pool it is rumored handsome boys swim naked on weekends, Jack of Hearts teems with lively characters, seen against a lovingly detailed background of times long past." ""A sweet read," the Baltimore Alternative called Living Upstairs. "Nathan is a perfect, whole character... a remarkable achievement." In Jack of Hearts, you will come to know Nathan even better. As a good many readers already have, you just may fall in love with him."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved