Book excerpt: Instead of living at home and attending junior college, why couldn't he be looking out at the New York City skyline even if he were crashing in a cheap loft, broke and hungry. God! There had to be some way that he could get the cash to swing a life of his own. Mort Carmody is a green freshman at Southcoast Junior College in Southern California. He wants to escape his parents' desire for him to be an accountant, and he longs to win the heart of Fredericka McShay, the girl of his dreams. Mort's dad informs him that his chances of becoming a film director are about equal to those of becoming a rock star or an astronaut. But Mort has a plan. Unfortunately, he hasn't factored in the competing ambitions of his kinky professor, some slow-witted but calculating bodybuilders, and an adult film actress with an agenda of her own. It's a wild ride from the school dance to the county jail, to an auto-wrecking yard, and even to a double wedding.