Summer of '69

He shook his head. I don't know what threw me more: that Alan had no idea who Mick Jagger and crew were, or that someone as talented and famous as Brian Jones would so carelessly throw it all away when so many guys in Nam were spending each day desperately trying to stay alive.

Liked the bits of humour that were thrown in the story to dilute the overall sad situation everyone was going through at some point; glad I picked it up, honestly.

Lucas Baker spends the summer of ‘69 in limbo. His college applications have been rejected and he is a prime candidate for the draft. His girlfriend has headed off to Canada for the summer and he is left alone and tempted by the mysterious Tinsley. Lucas' primary response to his troubles is to get high, and even that won't help if his girlfriend leaves him for good and he is sent off to fight in Vietnam.

Summer of ‘69 is a close look at the '60s from the point-of-view of a young affluent nascent hippie. Think: sex, drugs, and rock-‘n-roll, and you will have a pretty clear picture of this story. Strasser tells us that the book is a thinly disguised memoir, and that is probably one of the strengths of the book.