This book's setting, as well as the interesting combination of characters, drew my attention. The setting, because I remember the seventies, and the characters because - well, a vet on a bike and a gay eighteen-year-old runaway looking for a better life? Sounded pretty fascinating to me. All of that in an era when gay men just started to come out into the open, with all the issues connected to that, and AIDS didn't really exist yet? Sign me up, please.

Michael, the narrator of the story, unfortunately drove me nuts. Way too introspective for my taste, his internal musings surprised me. On the one hand, he was ready to do whatever was necessary to get him across the country from Pennsylvania to San Fransisco, which tells me he is pretty goal-oriented and has (almost) no scruples. On the other hand he then thinks and rethinks everything so many times, I got the impression he was pretty insecure. Which is probably exactly where a young man who has left everything he knew behind might end up. So, kudos to the author for getting that across!

Snake is much more difficult to get a handle on. He is older, clearly psychologically scarred, and with being a vet and probably suffering from PTSD (although that is not explicit, as it would not have been recognized in the seventies), he is not an easy guy to get to know. For Michael to put his trust in him, despite only knowing him for two days and despite all the issues, is risky at best. Then again, that is what some men his age do, and with his background of having lost his family, I guess it is easy for him to "latch on to" the first man he thinks he can trust.

If you like reading about young men who have no idea how to get what they want but go after it anyway, if you don't mind characters who take a lot of risks, and if you're looking for a read set in recent history that does a great job at making those days come alive, then you will probably like this novel. ( )