The bassist in a gay punk band reflects on his troubled relationship with the band's guitarist/singer. In the wake of the Matthew Shepard murder, a Wyoming ranch manager conceals his affair with another man. A young African American breaks up with his white boyfriend at a series of dinners at Cuban-Chinese restaurants. The attempt to repeal a gay rights ordinance divides a Southern college town. And in the title story, a downsized computer engineer tutors a gay Vietnamese immigrant in pop culture, cyberspace, and weight loss—only to learn a vital lesson about American life circa Y2K. Welcome to the world of Richard Grayson, the writer Newsday called "convulsively inventive" and <i>Kirkus Reviews</i> found "oddly charming." In <i>The Silicon Valley Diet</i>, his ninth collection of short stories, Grayson zeroes in on gay baby boomers and Gen Xers making their way in a wired world. Read Less