Kick It Till It Breaks

In his first novel, veteran music journalist Ira Robbins satirizes the foibles and fanaticism of '60s radicalism. The dark humor of Kick It Till It Breaks is tempered by affection and respect for those who devoted themselves to ending the war in Viet Nam. Ydinia Ochreman is the leader of the Plumbers, a pre-Watergate organization engaged in watery terrorism; her travels and exploits shape the story, which involves a colorful cast of dubious characters, including the incompetent FBI agent on her trail, a pacifist protest leader with a complicated agenda, a cranky peg-legged bar owner, an Irish atheist on a quest to end organized religion whose son kills people for it and a confused loser from Memphis who gets lost in London and finally finds a way to live.

Rich with period detail, slang and settings, Kick It Till It Breaks is both a fond epic of long-ago times and a stick in the eye of anyone with too idealized a recollection of the era.