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(More customer reviews)Making Expression Less Taxing, a Freelancer's Tax HandbookIf you didn't experience Woodstock, the bohemian lifestyle, the nomadic make-peace-not-war routine, the openness, the protests of '60s and '70s like me--I was a Mormon missionary in Munich--but want some sense of the experience and culture, you've got to read this novel. It'll clue you in. Big time. And if you did experience some or all of the '60s and '70s Zeitgeist, this novel will resurrect some of it for you. Not only that, but it has a mythic structure characteristic of all great storytellers. Now, take your thesaurus and look up synonyms for "favorite". You'll find "blue-eyed". Now look up "paradox." You should--but won't--find Doyle Sinclair's novel, BLUE-EYED SON listed. But, believe me, the novel is, in the best sense of the push-me-pull-you word, a paradox.
In the dog days of 1969, a self-absorbed, too-smart-for-his-own-good 17-year-old testosterone-driven blue-eyed son, David St. John, gets busted for smoking pot. Not by cops in the school parking lot but by his parents in his bedroom at home. His father takes a belt to him, while mother dear urges Papa on--"Don't you stop . . . He needs a damn good thrashing!"--and promises to trash David's hippie toys: posters, record players, vinyl albums, clothes. It's clear to them that David has immersed himself in decadence. No more allowance. They tell him he is grounded and can't do anything.
"Aufwiedersehen, Texas, David says. "Guten Tag, hippiedom." He decides to Peter Pan it. Well, not literally, but you get the drift. David begins his nomadic adventure that takes him through the '70s with a band of fellow hippies to travel with, a psychedelic bus to tour in: foul-mouthed, chain-smoking pot and cigarettes, shooting-up exotic drugs, open and free sex, defiance, endless booze, petty to major crimes, and then: eluding the Man. For years on end. Stuck. And aside from the free-love, genuine love interests: Maggie and Munchie the cat. Oh, and did I mention the creepiest of antagonists, named Aaron? Well, him too. It makes me squirm just thinking of him. Then, finally, in New Orleans in 1980, "For the first time in years, David felt comfortable enough to relax and stop worrying about running from the law." And then it takes at least twenty more years to have a breakthrough in recovery. And all of this is set to the music of the times. How? Well, Sinclair has sprinkled lyrics from hit rock and roll songs of the era throughout the narrative to hype the setting and enhance his characterizations. The tactic brought for me the melodies of yesteryear to life, almost as if a needle was coursing its way through the vinyl grooves of a record on a turntable.
Don't get me wrong. Reading Blue-Eyed Son wasn't perfect for me. But it was like finding an old 1969 Camaro convertible in grandpa's garage after he's died and learning he's left the old classic to me. It's a treasure, but it needs some work. It had a few implausibility and deus ex machine dents. There were some repetitions that seemed like scratches in the paint that needed to be buffed out and repainted. And it could use a tune-up by at least a copy editor.
Overall, though, the basic story is iconic, like Woodstock itself. David chooses to leave a comfortable home and ordinary surroundings to venture into a tough, new, transformative world. And believe me it has consequences more dire than the wicked witch or the big bad wolf. It is both an outward journey and an inward journey for David. He grows and changes. Weaknesses slowly become strengths--and at times it seemed excruciating. His despair gives way to hope. Foolishness yields to wisdom. Love moves to revulsion but returns again. It hooked me and made the story worthwhile reading. It is not a book for the faint of heart or those too put off by stong language and alternative lifestyles. I can't convey the harshness of consequences on the blue-eyed son, but even more than that, on his one true love: Maggie. It is their saga. It is their song. You should listen to it. It's not just one catchy melody, but many.
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Leaving his home in Dallas in the summer of ‘69, teenager David St. John is plunged into a psychedelic explosion of light, color, drugs and music as he begins a journey through three decades. Like most teens, David has seen the incredible images on TV of the hippies in San Francisco enjoying, rock music, sexual freedom and drugs. David's parents bust him for smoking a joint, and he makes a decision that will affect his life forever. Heading west, he criss-crosses the country in a hippie-bus full of like minded kids. Falling in love with Maggie, another runaway, they attend the Woodstock concert in New York. David and his friends are involved in an incident that causes them trouble with the law. Hiding out by going underground and living off the grid, David decides that the ‘hippie lifestyle' was not as glamorous as it had appeared. Another incident causes the group to disband quickly with the law chasing them again. David and Maggie are separated and are living far apart. They both want to find each other, but are unable to reunite due to the fact that they are still on the run from the law, and have no idea where the other is hiding. David wants to reunite with Maggie, and live a normal life. They both decide to search for each other. Will they be reunited, or has time and distance separated them forever? There was more to the 60's than Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll!
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