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This book has a really unique genre: political fiction. It lays out a future (written in 1975 the future was 1999) where a perfect ecological utopia exists and an Americ*n journalist is assigned to cover it. I appreciated the thorough descriptions of the city planning aspects, such as the sewer systems, the school systems (university and primary/secondary), the role of art and music. This kind of information is central for our ability to imagine changes to our current build environment. However, I felt that some of the characters and descriptions were a bit simplistic, with these ideas of overly sentimental granola tree huggers being too obvious. I also thought that the author did not grapple with race well, though what he expressed was more relevant at the time and would not be appropriate I don't think today. Furthermore, the rape jokes & interesting role of women providing sexual labor was annoying. So, I would not be like omg you have to read this book it is amazing! But I think, keeping in mind that some parts are outdated, that this book provides a helpful starting off point for radical world building in terms of societal structures.