Jimmy Shine

About this book

"Jimmy Shine is super-buddies with a school classmate, as boys are prone to be super-buddies in high school. A born follower, he is talked into skipping college by his pal, the idea being to become Village painters. Though he has neither an interest in nor a talent for painting, his friend--the ultimate phoney--convinces him that it is possible. So he goes off to paint while the buddy decides to go to college. As it turns out, the buddy never does become a painter. He goes into his father's real-estate business and marries the girl Shine adored. So the artist holes up in his loft, painting terrible pictures and dreaming about the girls he never gets while satisfying himself with a lovely and quite real prostitute. When the play ends he is still nowhere--still painting though now relieved of taking himself seriously--and so at last capable of doing something."--As described by The New York Post on the publisher's website.