Collecting Sins is a highly-charged coming-of-age novel set in the Southern California of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Steven Sobel evokes the inner environment of Ben, a sensitive and carefree youth confronting adulthood. Ben explores the labyrinth of sewers beneath the San Fernando Valley, cavorts on the sun-drenched, bikini-infested beaches of Santa Monica, and immerses himself in the hippie culture of Topanga Canyon. In the tradition of J. D. Salinger, Carolyn See, and Jay McInerney, Sobel takes us on a rollicking journey through the heady atmosphere of the era. Amplified by drugs, sex, rock 'n' roll, Vietnam, feminism, violence, and poetry. More than the story of an individual, Collecting Sins is the story of a generation before it came to power.