For Kings and Planets

So begins this stunning novel about two young men, vastly different and from opposite worlds, who meet at Columbia University. Orno Tarcher arrives in New York City from a small town in Missouri, feeling unsophisticated, already behind, and tired of his family's bedrock values. He meets Marshall Emerson, a seductive and brilliant New Yorker from a wordly family, who has a photogrpahic memory and gets straight A's without opening a book yet lives always on the edge. As the novel follows the course of these men's lives, women and work - Marshall moves to Hollywood and becomes a screenwriter, while Orno follows a more mundane path - Ethan Canin explores the conflicts of character that mark the heart of every life.