The book's title is a modification of "Martha Hoople", the name of a character from the comic strip Our Boarding House, which was widely syndicated in American newspapers from 1921 to 1984.

[citation needed] In the context of the book, the author uses the word "Hoople" to refer to squares, conventional people – those who "make the whole game possible, Christmas Clubs especially, politics, advertising agencies, pay toilets, even popes and mystery novels".

"[1] Protagonist Norman Mott is not a Hoople, and has various adventures in the comic novel, which is a contemporary commentary on religion, war and peace, the South, race, and so forth.

Facing a prison sentence for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War, he takes a job (despite his abhorrence of regular employment) as a ticket taker for a traveling amusement fair.

He cures Sandra of her fear of sex, then spends the next year and a half in prison, which he describes as comparable to working for a major corporation, except that "here they don’t let you out at night."

Mott reluctantly accepts a job at Spencer's department store chain; he dulls his unhappiness with the work and with becoming a Hoople using alcohol and tranquilizers.