Summary

In Chapter 1, Peter “Pete” Riley, the narrator, tells his reader that he arrived at the University of Maine driving a hand-me-down station wagon with a Goldwater sticker on it. He left four years later with a beard, long hair, and a button that said he was not a “fortunate son” (327). He remembers the song Atlantis but is more moved by its stupidity than its sweetness.

In Chapter 2, Pete lived in the dorm named Chamberlain Hall during his freshman year of college. He writes he learned many things during college like how not to be a Republican and how to best survive an anti-war rally once the police arrived. The first thing he learned was the danger of Hearts. Nineteen of the 32 boys who lived on Pete’s floor in the dorm flunked out of college or dropped out of college...