In this idiosyncratic bildungsroman set to a Britpop beat, an effeminate teenage boy coming of age in the '80s finds salvation in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
and, especially, Andy Warhol. Born in Texas but raised in Washington, D.C., where he attends a series of exclusive private schools, Caleb Watson grows up feeling different until a seventh-grade field trip to the Hirshhorn Museum proves a life-altering experience when he is mesmerized by Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe's Lips
. He quickly changes his appearance to resemble his new idol and begins to make Warhol-style movies with a crew of his own, including the beautiful Aaron, who is Caleb's partner in gay exploration; Sonia, his own personal Edie Sedgwick; and Brit, a young Marilyn look-alike and Rocky Horror
aficionado who is really a runaway boy. Unfortunately, Caleb's story—his experiments with acid, suicide and sexual fetish—lacks cumulative dramatic power. Instead, the novel works best as a series of snapshots of the glammy 1980s and a depiction of the teenage outcasts who made Georgetown their hangout. (July)
