Adored by Amy Sedaris, Madonna (who optioned the film rights), and Gordon Lish, Love Junkie is Robert Plunket’s scandalously funny and long-out-of-print novel that captures the hedonistic highs and looming shadows of gay New York at the dawn of the AIDS crisis.
Meet Mimi Smithers, a forty-something suburban housewife with a flair for décor and a thirst for more. After a failed Westchester cocktail party for Mrs. Rockefeller and a lingering funk, Mimi’s life takes a surreal and seductive turn. She dives headfirst into Manhattan and Fire Island’s gay underworld, partnering up with Joel, a Ken-doll-chested porn star, and helping him run a thriving side hustle involving signed photos, used underwear, and verbal abuse audiotapes. What begins as escapism becomes a journey of transformation, absurdity, and unexpected liberation.
Now gloriously reissued for a new generation of readers.
Kendall’s Pick: An absolutely deranged, campy, late-’80s fever dream starring a sad, rich housewife. Equal parts hilarious, devastating, and deeply weird.
