In this raunchy novel, a young American veteran, using the GI Bill to attend an art school in Montparnasse, returns to post-World War II Paris where he meets Cleo. She is a 19-year-old virginal American studying abroad who, along with a group of café friends and a comic overweight middle-aged Parisian prostitute, hopes to explore love, philosophy, sex and early movies in the easygoing ways of Left Bank Paris. It is an unusual kind of novel: a graphic love story (quite graphic at times) while remaining a fun read.