Gary and Rickey grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward, products of New Orleans as surely as Community Coffee or the Superdome. Friends since childhood, they become lovers at age 16 and must deal with the reality of being gay in a hardscrabble neighborhood, a traditional Catholic family, and the restaurant kitchens where they've begun to work.

The Value of X is a novel about growing up, about outgrowing the templates of family and society, and about the pirate-crew culture that goes on behind the scenes of every restaurant.