Jay Quinn, who memorably explored gay families in Back Where He Started (Alyson Books, 2005) directs his ever-sharpening eye over the enormous cultural shifts playing across the hedges in American society on two families in a manicured upscale suburban south-Florida neighborhood.

Austin Harden is downsized when the dot.com bubble bursts, earning less than his wife Meg, who recently made partner in her law firm. He is spending much of his time shuttling his two sons between school and soccer practice. Rory Fallon, whose partner Will has his career on the fast-track, feels increasingly stranded and isolated in their elegant and echoing home. Living next-door to each other, the two couples form a close friendship, particularly Austin and Rory, who share a growing sense of dislocation and the sense that their lives have gone off track and they aren't sure how or why.

The Good Neighbor explores concepts of success, masculinity, ambition, and sexuality in a way that shines a new light on how we define ourselves by them, while allowing them to define us. As the relationships among the four adults evolve, and take on surprisingly complex emotional and sexual overtones, the placid suburban facade cracks open to reveal something more primal and urgent.