"The Life and Art of Gary Geckleman" is a coming-of-age novel. Gary must not only make the transition from boy to man, but to being an artist, and to become an American. Born on the Lower East Side and raised in the 1950's, he comes from a family uprooted by the Holocaust. To be Jewish seems sad to him, full of loss and death. He prefers the glamour of the movies to his family to teach him what life is about, and how he should act.