A Globe and Mail Top 100 Pick of 2006

The Summer of Love is already like a distant memory; the psychedelic underground has turned in on itself. John Dupre has deserted a perfectly satisfying life as a student in Toronto, drawn back to the US by the need to make a difference in the Revolution. He’s living in Boston—under an assumed name because he’s on the FBI’s wanted list for draft evasion.

His best friend is Tom Parker, an ex-GI turned righteous drug dealer. When John, Tom, and the militant feminist and Situationist Pam Zalman seize control of an underground newspaper and are put on the Weatherman hit list, there’s really no place to hide—they’re wanted on all sides.

It’s the year of the Harvard Square riot, the invasion of Cambodia, and Kent State. Campuses across America are host to demonstrations and riots. Burning ROTC buildings has become an everyday pastime. Pam and John forge a relationship where they’re struggling against sex roles. The Left is splintering into ever smaller and crazier micro-factions. And that’s when things begin to get really weird . . .

Looking Good is a masterfully crafted, meticulously reconstructed social history of the ’60s counterculture and a searching examination of gender identity—the magnificent, explosive climax to Difficulty at the Beginning.