This is an interesting first novel about a writer of Science Fiction stories, Juniper, who has a recurring nightmare about floating around the moon in a space unit. It begins and ends with one of those sequences, which alternate with sharply observed scenes of student life. Hector, Juniper’s oldest friend, is the eternal student, flitting from religion to religion and from ideology to ideology. His wife, Matty, gets fed up with him and goes to live with Juniper. The friendship between the men continues, the strain showing more in Juny’s recurring nightmare than in actual confrontations. Hector takes to drugs and violent films and in the last scene of the book thinks he’s watching a rather repetitious film while he sees Juny being beaten up and nearly kicked to death.