I Think Therefore Who Am I? by Peter Weissman (46/81)

Category: Retro - Beats, Hippies, 1960s and Counterculture

I was not born in the 1960s, but have always had a fascination with this period; the music, the fashions and the politics, and I've had a sense of having missed out on something special. But Peter Weissman's memoir of his experiences in 1967 put some of my yearning into perspective.
The author's memories do not portray the time as a golden age, but at the same time he doesn't renounce it or downplay its personal significance.

My overall impression of this book is of the honesty of the author in description himself and his experiences. He unflinchingly describes his younger self as shy, naive and unsuccessful with women at the start of the book, and then as he begins to change through his LSD experiences, he is still portrayed as often foolish and not quite as worldy as he would like to think.

And of LSD taking, here is another of the writer's strengths as he avoids the pitfalls of over-glamorising or over-dramatising the experiences. Again the best way to describe his approach is honest.

'I think therefore who am I?' is essentially a coming of age story and although some of the specifics relate to that time and place, much of it struck a chord with me despite having been born a couple of decades later.

Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan (32/81)

Category: Retro – 1960s, Beats, Hippies and Counterculture

Although my fourth book in this category, this is the first example of writing actually from that period that I’ve read for the challenge. As an example of the weird literary experiments of the time, I think this is a good choice.

The book is made up of a series of short essays (for want of a better word) that are all vaguely around the idea of “Trout Fishing in America”. In some “Trout Fishing in America” is more or less what you would think it means, tales of fishing across the USA, but more often the phrase turns up to mean something completely different. It is often the name of a person, it is the name of hotel in one place and in my favourite story, it is a slogan written on school jackets.

There were parts of it that I enjoyed but other parts I found frustrating. Brautigan can obviously write and I would have liked to see his talent used in a sustained way rather than the fragmented style here. Very much of its time and therefore great for this category and I will certainly attempt more of his work in future.

Hippie by Barry Miles (29/81)

Category: Retro – 1960s, Beats, Hippies and Counterculture

At first I thought it might be a bit of cheat including this book in a reading challenge as this book does mainly consist of photographs. However it turned out that there was still a substantial amount of text amongst the wonderful images, so it has earned a place in my list.

“Hippie” covers the counterculture movement from 1965 to 1971, spending a lot of time in San Francisco where the hippies dominated, but also visiting the equivalent scenes in Los Angeles, New York and London. The book is very much about the culture of the period in terms of music, fashion and lifestyle choices, with the political aspects not being covered as in depth here as elsewhere.

The author is in a good position to write about this era as his background includes being chairman of the Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, co-founder of Indica Books and Gallery and International Times (IT) and head of Zapple, the Beatles' spoken word label. He actually pops up in the book once or twice, where he refers to himself in the third person, which seemed a bit odd. Despite his connections, this book is far being a rose-tinted trip down memory lane with a description of the later Haight-Ashbury scene being particularly disturbing. He is also very realistic about the limitations of the hippie ideals, how short-lived its heyday was and about its long-term impact.

“Hippie” is very much an overview of the movement and at times I would have liked more detail, but it provides a good introduction to the subject. It is also a book that can be dipped into and returned to again on account of the great pictures.

1968: The Year that Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky (15/81)

Category: Retro - Beats, Hippies, 1960s and Counter Culture.

In comparison to many of my other books, this was quite a weighty read and at first I struggled to read more than a chapter or two at a time because there was a lot of information to take in. However, about half way through, I got into the swing of it and completed it quite quickly.

It was a good book to read early in the challenge for this category as it provided a huge amount of background information on the political situation in this period. Although it obviously focuses on the year in the title, there were detailed explanations of what led there. There was a lot on the USA, understandably given the war with Vietnam and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, but it was just as informative about Czechoslovakia, France and Mexico.

One of the recurring themes in the book was the relationship between the media (especially television) and the events of the year, and a very interesting point was made about the movement away from non-violent protests being due to the media age. In terms of the civil rights movement, anti-war protests and student demonstrations, it is obvious that the author is on the side of these campaigns, but there is still some criticism of them for example the sidelining of women’s rights and the portrayal of Martin Luther King is not always flattering.

The book was fascinating, but was much less about the culture of the period than I was expecting from the blurb on the back. In retrospect, given the huge amount it already covered, this was not really a problem, but I thought I should highlight that in case anyone else reads it expecting chapters on music, film and fashion.

Retro Retro: Fictional Flashbacks edited by Amy Prior (2/81)

Category: Retro - Beats, Hippies, 1960s and Counter Culture.

This anthology of short stories has the theme of our collective obsession with the recent past and its culture. It brings together 16 writers who all come at the topic from a different angle, which results in a collection of stories of varying quality and interest.

Classic films and iconic film stars feature frequently in these stories, with settings including a vintage clothing shop, 1950s-themed drugstore and arts college.

My favourites were the stories where the retro element was explicit. I loved "Empty Boxes" by Nicholas Royle which is about a man's obsession with disused cinemas in London. I also enjoyed Joyce Carol Oates' story "Strand Used Books 1956" which is about a chance encounter with Marilyn Monroe in a bookshop. Tony White's "Jet Set Girls" humourously recreates 1960s Soho gangsters and the world of low brow publishing.

Christopher Kenworthy's "The Death of Blonde" imaginatively addresses the question of our need to record the past in museums. Editor Amy Prior contributes the most touching story in the collection, "Miss Shima" about a lonely Chinese woman's obsession with old-fashioned glamour.

The weakest story was "The Stock Exchange" by Matthew de Abaituo, sadly also the longest and I'm not sure how it fitted with the theme of the anthology. The same could also be said of Emily Perkin's "Let's Go" about young Westerners in Prague. It left me wondering if the publishers were just so keen to have contributions from certain writers that they just allowed any story from them to be included.

Overall the collection had more good stories than bad, and because they were all so different, I'm sure most people would be able to find something here to enjoy.