O plus F

A solitary man in a diner on the coast of Maine. A tall beautiful stranger. A whip. A bronze heart. Hawaii. The Northwest ... How far will he go to face the truth about himself? ... This is a story about borders: between father and son, between sex and love, between life and death.Oliver Muni Prescott is a late bloomer, short, calm, and strong with a passion for life that hasn't found expression. His father, whom Oliver has never met, is Japanese. His mother, Italian, left the relationship when she was pregnant. A few years later in the United States, she married Owl Prescott who raised Oliver as his stepson.One winter morning, Oliver enters Becky's Diner in Portland, Maine, and sits next to a table taken by two women and two young girls. He can't take his eyes off the taller of the two women. She is Francesca, mother of two adopted girls from South America and married to a local businessman. Her friend, Jackie, notices Oliver and remembers him.Oliver eventually becomes involved with Jackie who schools him in sexual behavior that he'd heard of but never experienced. It is the beginning of his journey to maturity in sex and in love. A journey that takes him to the west coast and to Hawaii in search of his father. A short relationship with another woman results in an unexpected pregnancy. Oliver is plunged into deeper waters when he marries and then becomes involved with a younger woman at the hospital where he is employed as a computer programmer.As his complicated life is about to explode, Oliver is faced with desperate choices that will determine his future.The author has said that one of his goals in the book was to present sexuality from a male perspective. The sexual scenes are sensitive and explicit, unusually honest. Sex and love have overlapping borders. Oliver's path to love begins on the sexual side. The book is a delight to read, literary and erotic. The characters are fun to listen to; the settings are believable and vivid; and the lessons learned are universal.