Stephen Tenenbaum

Philosophy professor Abe Lucas is at rock bottom emotionally, unable to find any meaning or joy in life. He feels that everything he's tried to do from political activism to teaching hasn't made any difference. Abe gets involved with two women: Rita Richards, a lonely professor who is unhappy in her marriage; and Jill Pollard, his best student, who becomes his closest friend. Pure chance changes everything when Abe and Jill overhear a stranger's conversation...

Boris Yellnikoff is a lifelong New York resident who attempts to impress his ideologies of religion, relationships, and the randomness of existence onto anyone who will listen. But when he begrudgingly allows Melodie St. Ann Celestine, a naïve Mississippi runaway, to live in his apartment, his reclusive rages give way to an unlikely friendship and Boris begins to mold the impressionable young girl's worldly views to match his own. When it comes to...

Set in the 1930s, a young Bronx native moves to Hollywood where he falls in love with the secretary of his powerful uncle, an agent to the stars. After returning to New York he is swept up in the vibrant world of high society nightclub life.