Arkansas

In Arkansas, David Leavitt brings together three novellas that explore the themes of escape and exile. In "Saturn Street, " a disaffected screenwriter in Los Angeles volunteers to deliver lunches to homebound AIDS patients only to find himself falling in love with one of them. In "The Wooden Anniversary, " Nathan and Celia - characters familiar to readers of Leavitt's short story collections - reunite awkwardly at Celia's cooking school in Tuscany after a five-year separation. And in "The Term Paper Artist, a writer named David Leavitt, hiding out at his father's house in the aftermath of a publishing scandal, experiences literary rejuvenation when he agrees to write term papers for UCLA undergraduates in exchange for sex.