Bitingly funny and at times harrowingly sad, Let's Shut Out the World traces the man-hungry and misanthropic journey of an intensely bibliophilistic young man following his natural bent from a desolate Texas landscape of tumbleweeds, Jesus freaks, and compliant straight boys to the gay capital of San Francisco in pursuit of sex, drugs, a lover, and more. Whether describing having his hair styled by a gang of eighth-grade bullies; staging a Satan festival...