Simon and Melanie

Patrick Coyne feels like he’s safe from the drug authorities as a patient in a mental hospital during the late 1980s. He even calms down an angry young girl and thinks his love life is about to improve. Will legally prescribed drugs end his paranoia? And why won’t the staff let him have a girlfriend?

When eight young singles cope with Boston-area rent by living together in one big house, there are bound to be conflicts. Simon Herbst is your guide to the goings-on at Fletcher Street near the end of the 1980s, including drug dealing, romantic love, pure lust, power struggles, betrayals, and secrets. Join Simon and you can experience it all without having to help him make the rent.

Approaching middle age, liberal columnist Melanie Dvorak is in good health, is financially secure, and has an eccentric yet loyal husband. Yet she worries about losing credibility with her readership and feels guilty about her social status. A violent encounter in public gives Melanie notoriety and legal trouble but not fame on her own terms. How will she emerge from this psychological turmoil?