Richard Fariña evokes the Sixties as precisely, wittily, and poignantly as F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the Jazz Age. The hero, Gnossus Pappadopoulis, weaves his way through the psychedelic landscape, encountering—among other things—mescaline, women, art, gluttony, falsehood, science, prayer, and, occasionally, truth.

The novel offers a witty, psychedelic, and telling portrayal of the 1960s, capturing the essence of a transformative era through the eyes of a young anti-hero navigating a world filled with surreal adventures.