Who Are We? Venice

Venice, California, 1965-Albert Zay, nineteen years old, has moved to Venice from the San Fernando Valley to pursue a penchant for drawing and watercolors, day job enlisted for reasons of necessity. In a mixture of circumstances that embrace a love affair and the fading of the Beat scene, which morphs into the hip scene, Albert and Albert's lover, Valorie, change, and it's this shifting movement that underlies the story. Like the characters and the times in which they lived, a sense of freedom and exploration are reflected in the novel's structure and narrative style. Nothing claims stasis because everything is in transition-music, art, lifestyles, relationships, travel-individuals without fame or riches seeking alternatives, that mature.