Virgin Territory is set in Canada in the mid-70s. It is a coming-of-age story, centered on two young American men who go on a hitchhiking trip together just after high-school graduation. Gil, from whose point-of-view the novel is told, is naive, bumbling and sincere, and a 17-year-old virgin, a condition that propels much of his inner and outer questing on the trip. He's concealed his situation from Alan, his best friend and his companion on the journey. Alan is cynical, and much more worldly than Gil; the fact that he is, beneath much sexual braggadocio, also a stealth virgin is one of the...