San Fran60s

Description

San Fran60s
San Francisco in the Sixties, the Summer of Love, the birth of the hippies, experience it for yourself in San Fran60s, a collection of autobiographical short stories. San Francisco in the Sixties was the epicenter of the biggest cultural transformation of the second half of the Twentieth Century, and of course it has had its memoirs and histories, but this is the only time a participant has used the devices of literary fiction to put you there, living it.
San Fran60s is darker, edgier, and more intimate than anything on the subject before. In addition to the requisite sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll, there is murder, madness, and God. One of the murders officially ends the Summer of Love. William Burroughs and Janis Joplin make an appearance, as does Jim Morrison in the sequel More San Fran60s. LSD and free love, Haight-Ashbury and the Hell’s Angels, the Hip and the Straight, it’s all in these stories.
And it all really happened. The stories are based on my journals and experiences and there is less invention than in most memoirs. I have lived in and around San Francisco since 1965 and present myself, friends, and acquaintances as prime specimens. In the Sixties and Seventies, I was a free lance journalist, among other things. Now I am a retired English teacher.
The first story in San Fran60s, “The Street,” is a present-tense, stream-of-expanded-consciousness stroll the length of Haight Street at the height of the Summer of Love. In “Unlivable With,” a college love affair beset by a outraged husband and a predatory junky culminates in a night of sex on LSD. In “Junkie Love,” there’s a legendary junkie burn artist and armed robbery between dealers, and it all culminates in a meeting with William Burroughs. In “Gilroy,” three dealers are driving from San Francisco to LA in the middle of the night on LSD. They must contend with rednecks at a truck stop as well as demons of their own that emerge in their hurtling steal cage. In “Summer of ‘66” follow four roommates and assorted crashers during the all important gestational summer before the Summer of Love.
The stories range in tone from comic to harrowing to lyrical. All are interconnected but each is self-contained so they can be read in any order. These collections could be thought of as a fractured novel in which even the narrative structure expresses that era.
Now read on and experience it for yourself.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-23
Summary: "Review of San Fran 60s"

I've known the author of this book (and its companion piece) since the mid-sixties. We went to college together. These books do an unbelievably good job of capturing the feel of the 60s. The pace is perfect. The rhythm is perfect. The books are close to flawless. And some of the images are searing - they stick with you for days after you read them.

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-06-06
Summary: "Quite a Fun Read!!"

I was a pre-teenager during the Summer of Love but I wanted to be part of the scene anyway. This is a collection of related short
stories about that time period that are probably auto-biographical. Very enjoyable, especially at this low price!