After Tom Pollard’s knee injury ends his basketball hopes, and his older
brother Bob is killed in Vietnam, he drops out of Berkeley and slums as
a bartender in a hippie haunt on Vancouver Island. In an attempt to
rescue him, his conservative girlfriend Ruby takes a job teaching school
there, but soon becomes weary of Tom’s lost soul routine. When summer
arrives, she returns home to Anaheim, indefinitely. In her absence, Tom
overindulges in booze and drugs, until reality intrudes and forces him
to confront death, loss, and the conspiring, malevolent universe.
Fresh, insightful, and often hilarious, The Dregs of Aquarius is a
counter-culture Catcher in the Rye that delves into the coming-of-age
challenges common to every generation. For anyone who didn’t experience
the hippie era first-hand, or for baby boomers who can’t remember much
about the whole scene and might want a refresher, The Dregs of Aquarius
is the perfect trip.
