From the publisher (source:
The Internet Book List):
The novel is set in a dingy apartment complex in fictional Point Royal, Virginia. It explores the disaffected lives of Gordon Brinhart, an unsuccessful insurance salesman; his wife, Katherine, a former rock guitarist; and Katherine's illegitimate son, Alex, a subdued eleven-year-old obsessed with baseball. When Gordon goes on a drinking binge, loses his job, and sleeps with a teenage neighbor, Katherine attempts suicide, and Alex is the unfortunate witness to it all.