Groupies

In 1977, Faun Novak is a naive college dropout whose mother has just died. She packs her Polaroid camera, boards a Greyhound and heads for Los Angeles, where rock 'n' roll is the only thing she wants.

In the city she finds Josie, a childhood friend with plenty of charisma who is making her name as a model and muse. Josie is dating Cal Holiday, frontman of the superstar band Holiday Sun. Faun is soon dazzled by the band and by the women who surround it.

These groupies include a high school girl who dotes on the band and fights with her mother. Another is a wife and new mother who deals drugs and wants stardom of her own. A third is a cynical mover-and-shaker with a soft spot for the bassist.

Faun photographs everything she sees and tries to square her artistic ambitions with what the band expects of her. Her confidence rises for the first time in her life, and her priorities move with it. She grows careless with her friendships, her romances, her ethics and her money.

As the summer heats up, Faun begins to see the darker corners of this glamorous scene, and events slide out of her control. This is a coming-of-age novel set in 1970s California, with a sharp eye on fame, desire and the media. The mood is glittery and grimy at once, and it builds toward a music- and drug-fueled finish.