Bennie Salazar
A man who evolved from teenage punk rocker to middle-aged recording mogul. Twice married, two children and two significant assistants over the long course of his life. Notable character trait: keep a running list of ever memory that comes to mind and produces a sense of shame over something he did or didn’t do in his past.
Sasha Grady
Ran away from home as a teenager and wound up in Italy. Bennie Salazar’s assistant, she is also a compulsive thief. Clearly, Sasha has a mental disorder since she steals when she has no need, although she started out when the need was quite tangible. She will invent a fake relationship with a friend for the benefit of her the private dick her father hired and she will eventually marry a doctor and have two kids.
Lou Kline
Benny’s early mentor and role model for a record mogul. He’s a womanizer with multiple marriages and multiple children, but spirals into a depression from which he never really recover following the tragic death of one of those kids.
Dolly
Like many of the characters involved in the rock industry, Dolly is washed-up in her career. At one time a hotshot PR agent working out of New York, her fall on hard times has left her with just one client. And he’s tyrannical dictator with a propensity for ethnic cleansing.
The General
As the dictator is known. Dolly’s former brilliance in PR shines one last time when she tries to soften the image of the man despised around the globe by taking his photo as he swoons over washed-up movie star Kitty Jackson.
Kitty Jackson
Everything is going as Dolly plans until Kitty starts mouthing off about genocide to the General. He kidnaps her and sends Dolly and her daughter home. When the photo of the General swooning hits the media, his image is forever softened and Kitty’s career gets back on track.
Scotty Hausmann
Guitarist for a punk rock band whose life takes the opposite trajectory of his friend Bennie’s. He falls on hard times and when he visits Bennie later, Bennie realizes that what happened to Scotty could still one day happen to him. When it eventually does it sets in motion Scotty’s comeback which climaxes the novel.
Rob Freeman
The “fake” boyfriend that Sasha presents as reality to the detective her father has sent to spy on her. Although platonic, Rob inevitably falls for Sasha and regrets that he never took the opportunity to have sex with her when the chance was there. When he sees how crazy Sasha is for Drew, his jealousy drive him to spill the dark secrets of her past, but this only results in his drowning in the East River.
Drew Blake
The real boyfriend who eventually marries Sasha. The marriage produces two kids, including an autistic son whose obsession with rock music is a world that Drew cannot easily share with his son. The marriage is not a happy one.
Alex
In the opening chapter, Alex is on his only date with Sasha which turn weird after she steals another woman’s wallet in the bathroom. He reappear in the final chapter as an associate of Bennie many years into the future who is struggling to recall the name of the girl he went on a date with who was the person responsible for his meeting Bennie. When he finally does recall her name, he and Bennie walk over to the apartment Sasha brought him back from the restaurant. But, of course, she has long since moved on.
