Jillian Luft’s Modern Romance

Scumbag Summer opens with photographs. The first image shows two severed cigarettes in an ashtray followed by the lit sign for a sports bar called “Body Talk.” The third image succeeds an impressive array of blurbs. It is a faded version of the book’s cover—an amusement park with palm trees in the foreground. In this way Jillian Luft sets the scene: early 2000s; Orlando, Florida.