The Worst Year of Their Lives; a coming of age story about the power of friendship.
The novel is in three sections: The Personal, The Political, and The Personal is Political. It's 1984, in small-town Gunther, Nebraska. Dani Chaplin and George Novak, a gay boy who calls himself Georgia, have been inseparable since the fourth grade—an unstoppable duo bonded by brains, wit, and outsider status. But in their senior year of high school, everything changes. A charismatic peace activist with a blonde ponytail and a mysterious past speaks to their Nebraskans Against Nuclear War chapter.
Georgia knows Mister Blonde Ponytail is a phony. But as Georgia makes his first forays into gay life, he falls in love with an older man with AIDS. Then he admits that sometimes love is blind, and maybe he should give Dani's boyfriend the benefit of the doubt.
Dani talks Mister Blonde Ponytail into running a long-shot campaign for Congress. The candidate proposes marriage, partly because he's told that a candidate's wife can be a real asset to a campaign. Georgia becomes frustrated and furious when Dani's husband, now a rising politician, refuses to talk about the AIDS epidemic on the campaign trail. At the funeral for his beloved, Georgia lashes out at politics and politicians, blaming Dani's husband for anti-gay bigotry. After the funeral, Georgia helps Dani see that her new husband is a phony who must be stopped. Dani and Georgia set off on a mission to end the political career of Mister Blonde Ponytail before it can begin.