Request #654 from Jakey

Book is set in the 70s. Possibly early 80s. I would have read it in the around 93 or 94 I think.

MC’s dad got divorced and moved them from NYC to LA. The dad gets a perm and start wearing his shirts unbuttoned and doing EST – he’s basically having a post divorce identity crisis. They live in an apartment complex.

There is a woman who lives there who is way older than the son (who is a high school senior) and hits on him which makes him very uncomfortable. At one point she joins him in the hot tub in their apartment complex and says something in reference to her long fingernails like “wouldn’t you like to feel these in the hairs on your chest” and he is both grossed out/a little turned on/ and thinking her doesn’t have any chest hair. He then wonders what happens in that hot tub and doesn’t want to use it anymore.

His best friend is a movie star’s son who’s dad is never named. The best friend has a very California name like Kip or something. I think.  Kip straight up buys him a muscle car and he loves the car. He has to learn to drive because he is from NYC.

He meets this girl who turns him on to feminism and blows his mind. At one point they are lying on the beach together and he is admiring his car and she is looking at the ocean. He says something like “ohhhh those curves! Those headlights!” And she says “hey I thought we agreed it wasn’t ok to objectify women’s bodies like that” and then realizes he is absolutely talking about his car.

There is a scene where his dad meets his girlfriend’s mom (who is also a NYC transplant) and they hit it off and he asks to call her and for some reason he mentions leaving them a message and the mother and daughter say in unison “we don’t believe in answering machines”

There is another moment when the girlfriend is talking about letting her leg hair grow out and she mentions she loves feeling these wind in it.

The book ends with him deciding to go to Berkeley in the fall and to live with her there.

Any ideas? It’s been bouncing in my head for years. Help me banish this memory demon!