Description: Penelope Solstice, better known as Penguin, is twenty, a radical feminist, and "probably the only virgin at Dartmouth College". Hiding behind extremist politics and academic prowess, Penguin has always managed to keep her emotions, and her parents' divorce, at bay. Expelled from Dartmouth for setting fire to a fraternity house where a student was raped, Penguin retires to her family's summer home on Cape Cod, unsure of her next move. Although she has "never even been responsible for a hamster", Penguin soon agrees to care for her neighbor's AIDS-stricken lover, composer Arnold Fratorelli. As Penguin and Arnold's friendship develops, the well-heeled community of Squid Harbor grows uneasy with the threat of disease in their midst. Defending Arnold against the onslaught of paranoid neighbors, Penguin struggles to understand her changing relationships with those around her - and to learn to feel, not just think, her way through life. Penguin is a narrator with a daring, unique voice. She is the center of a rich assortment of characters whose dread, vanity, greed, and fear she learns to understand and respond to.

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