Having mesmerized us with his poignant memoirs, In the Failing Light, Mr. Tillman returns to his unique brand of humor with Finding Woodstock, a hilarious tale that begins with the foibles of suburban living, then moves to the country where the unlikely hero, Harry Lascome, encounters the remnants of a 60's commune. Seduced by the bucolic life he sees before him, yet still struggling with his desire - his father's desire - to live the elusive American dream, Harry must finally decide what it is he wants in life and what is best for his family.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Harry Lascome, his wife, Beth, and their two children are just settling into their new home in an unnamed community at the outset of Tillman's (Dinner for Eight) breezy send-up of the charms of suburbia. Harry, an investment counselor with only one client, has no trouble adapting, as he grew up in a suburb himself. He is not surprised when one house on his new cul-de-sac overflows with the members of a trashy family, that fruitcake-bearing Baptists will form the welcoming committee, and that his wife will immediately want a minivan. His city-bred family, however, is not assimilating well. Beth doesn't understand that it's a punishable neighborhood offense to put the garbage out too early and the kids have problems fitting in at school. Initially, this narrative is awkwardly written, suffering from a bad case of the cutes and plodding prose. But the story perks up considerably when Harry loses his job and Beth leaves the family to embark on a lesbian affair and road trip with new girlfriend, Eve. Shaken and confused, Harry finds himself named in the will of his lone client, who has left him $8 million provided that he move to her farm and care for her cat. Once at the farm Harry hooks up with some throwbacks to the '60s and, before long, he begins to realize that there's more to life than cold hard cash. Though Tillman's attempts at humor are uneven, this is sweet, light fare with a refreshingly buoyant attitude toward the unusual life changes of an ordinary American family. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
This is sweet, light fare with a refreshingly buoyant attitude toward the unusual life changes of an ordinary American family --Publishers Weekly
Built on a foundation of black humor a la Kurt Vonnegut, it amuses without giving up its pointed barbs. --Boulder Weekly
Built on a foundation of black humor a la Kurt Vonnegut, it amuses without giving up its pointed barbs. --Boulder Weekly
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More About the Author
David Tillman is a diverse individual whose many tastes and interests are reflected in his vast body of writing. A software engineer, CFA, school teacher, writer, vineyard owner, and movie producer, he has been engaged in a multitude of projects ranging from executive producer of the low-budget horror movie "God of Vampires" to touching memoirs such as "In the Failing Light" and "After All". He has written humorous fiction for men's magazines and worked on autobiographies with such celebrities as Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson.
Currently Mr. Tillman is working on a new memoir, "My Bad", which is best described as an expose of his two years teaching mathematics in an inner city high school for a corrupt administration.
He is also putting finishing touches on his eight unpublished works of fiction which include satire, drama, and young adult novels. Look for them in the near future.
Currently Mr. Tillman is working on a new memoir, "My Bad", which is best described as an expose of his two years teaching mathematics in an inner city high school for a corrupt administration.
He is also putting finishing touches on his eight unpublished works of fiction which include satire, drama, and young adult novels. Look for them in the near future.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
From "Boulder Weekly",
By A Customer
This review is from: Finding Woodstock (Paperback)
Young idealists beware. That oblivious balding guy-the one with the sad little ponytail and thecell phone stuck to his ear who just cut you off inhis $50,000 SUV-used to be a hippie. He used to stay up all night tripping, talking about free love and overthrowing the military/industrial complex. The closest he gets to free love now is the 60 hours a week he spends at his job, with his face planted firmly between the arse cheeks of The Man. Any of us could be next, if we're not careful. So it went for Harry Lascome in Finding Woodstock. He's a mild, unnoticed man who, at his wife Beth's prodding, moves his family to the suburbs over the protests of their two unhappy kids. His life begins to slip off the tracks when Beth runs off to San Francisco with another suburban housewife to explore some free love of their own. In rapid succession, Harry loses his job and is preparing to move with his kids back to the city (sans wife), when he learns that he stands to inherit $8 million, provided he lives in a rickety Catskills farmhouse and takes care of a deceased client's cat for one year. Once there Harry finds that his only neighbors are the remnants of a '60s commune, reduced to two people, Moon Crater and his daughter Moon Light. Odd though they seem at first, over time Harry finds that it's his old life that has taken on an otherworldliness in his mind; it's the suburbs that seem surreal from the vantage point of the quiet winter woods. Built on a foundation of black humor a la Kurt Vonnegut and generously underpinned with jabs at the slow strangulation of life in the suburbs, Tillman's book amuses without giving up any of its pointed barbs. Finding Woodstock is an excellent read for those of us who wonder how anyone who lives in a $300,000 house in a lily-white, economically gated community can justify calling themselves a liberal. And it's a call to action - or a requiem - for any aging boomers out there who might still have a nagging ghost of a recollection of all they gave up when they started moving on up. -Kurt J. Brighton
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