Though Richard Farina died young and his literary output was minimal, he was a larger-than-life figure whose writings and exploits entrenched him in the mythology of the sixties. Farina was of Irish and Cuban heritage; in the fifties he fought both with the Irish Republican Army in Ireland and Fidel Castro in the mountains of Cuba. He attended Cornell University, where Thomas Pynchon was his friend and roommate. Pynchon writes of the novel, "It's been a while since I've read anything quite so groovy, quite such a joy from beginning to end." Richard Farina died at the age of thirty in a motorcycle accident on his way to a publication party for this book.