Early Work

Early Work Synopsis

For young writers of a certain temperament - if they haven't had such notions beaten out of them by MFA programmes and the Internet - the delusion persists that great writing must be sought in what W. B. Yeats once called the 'foul rag and bone shop of the heart'.

That's where Peter Cunningham has been looking for inspiration for his novel - that is, when he isn't teaching at the local women's prison, walking his dog, getting high, and wondering whether it's time to tie the knot with his college girlfriend, a medical student whose night shifts have become a standing rebuke to his own lack of direction. When Peter meets Leslie, a sexual adventurer taking a break from her fiancé, he gets a glimpse of what he wishes and imagines himself to be: a writer of talent and nerve.