A uniquely witty novel exploring sex, freedom, and the process of growing up

Sydney Skate considers himself shockproof. For as long as he can remember, he's known that his fashionable Manhattan mother is secretly a lesbian, although he's never let on that he knows. He spends his summer days caring for snakes at the local pet shop before leaving for college at Cornell, shrugging off his father's demands that he skip college and join the exciting world of swimming pool sales for suburbanites.

Far from throwing himself into work, Sydney can't seem to keep his thoughts from wandering to women. He has memorized the sex scenes of every book he's ever read in order to better seduce the opposite gender. When he's called to help remove a snake from a bathtub that belongs to the gorgeous and sophisticated Alison Gray, everything changes. But nothing could prepare him for his glamorous mother sweeping the girl of his dreams off her feet.

This hypnotizing coming-of-age story captures the timeless ecstasies and struggles of adolescence, and has been a classic of lesbian literature since it was first published in 1973. Hailed as the Catcher in the Rye of the seventies, Shockproof Sydney Skate exposes the confusion of its time and remains keenly relevant to the sexual absurdities of today.