Glimpses (Paperback)

by Lewis Shiner (Author) "Once upon a time there was going to be a Beatles album called Get Back..." (more)
Key Phrases: carnival dog, vocal booth, dive shop, Beach Boys, First Rays, Van Dyke (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Shiner ( Slam , LJ 8/1/90, among others) has written what may be the first rock n roll time-travel novel. Ray Chackleford is a self-employed electronics repairman whose marriage is foundering and whose father has recently died. These unresolved relationships are complicated when Ray travels to the Mexican site of his father's death and promptly falls in love with a woman even more unstable than he. In the midst of this emotional turmoil, Ray--a rock drummer during his youth in the late Sixties--begins to hear in his head and manages to transfer to tape legendary unfinished recordings by Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, and Jimi Hendrix. This music is accompanied by "journeys" into the troubled lives of these rock musicians. Shiner's appealing main character and his gripping style overcome the less believable aspects of his story. With the current comeback of the Sixties, this novel should be widely popular.
- A.J. Wright, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
Can the 60's cure the 90's? That's what Texas stereo repairman Ray Shackleford struggles to prove in this strenuous fantasy of rock- and-roll hits that never were. Shortly after his unloving father drowns in Cozumel, Ray starts to imagine he's hearing impossible songtracks that he's able to record directly from his head. He takes his tape of the Beatles' never- recorded hit ``The Long and Winding Road'' to L.A. producer Graham Hudson, who's already remastered three volumes of Glimpses from rock's legendary past, and Graham persuades him to go after bigger game. So Ray travels back in time, changing history enough so that Jim Morrison can record Celebration of the Lizard and Brian Wilson can persist in his breakthrough album Smile. There's money to be made here, of course, but what Ray and Graham really want is to save the world by recalling the aging rock audience to its ardent roots. (Maybe a little too ardent, as when Ray wonders, ``Was it that way for everybody, music and sex and politics and love all inextricably part of each other, or is it just me?'') Trying to come to terms with his hated father's death, Ray takes time out to retrace his steps in Cozumel, attempting to re-create his own experience of the 60's more directly in 1989, but his romance with a diving instructor seems to open wide the rift in his ten-year marriage without giving him a satisfactory alternative, and he ends up repeating his father's experience instead of accepting it. So it's back to the past for one last try--with a Jimi Hendrix album that Ray hopes can keep the 60's from ending. As you'd expect from versatile fantasist Shiner (Slam, 1990, etc.), Ray's attempts to keep the faith by resurrecting Jimi and laying his own father to rest are powerfully affecting. Much more than yuppie reunions like The Big Chill, this captures a generation's sweet, desperate yearning for the 60's--though it ends up as authentically woolly as the period. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (March 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312267436
• ISBN-13: 978-0312267438
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #659,335 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars listen with your heart - you will understand, October 4, 2003

By	Alexander Gitlits (Moscow, Russia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

All right, I know it's strange to start speaking about a book, which touches upon the Doors, Beach Boys and Hendrix with a quote from a Disney song, but it IS an appropriate one.
Because this book is not only about music, but also about how we react to it, and how our life changes (maybe) because of music.
I'm too young to remember the 60s (being born in 1976), but this novel really fleshed out that era and its people for me. I think that for those, who really was there it will be even better.
Glimpses is not fantasy in ebveryday sence. I'd say it's magical realism, not unlike Jonathan Carrol or Haruki Murakami.
And the thing that makes it really great, is that it can convey to you the feeling of listening to the best music that never was, and I can't think of many authors who can wright about music so vividly. That's a tremendous achivement.
In short: this book lets you glimpse another world. And it as real as this one. I don't know how Mr. Shiner does it. It's a kind of magic

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it..., February 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Glimpses (Paperback)

If ever a book deserved to come back into print and stay in print, this is it. Lewis Shiner has written the great American rock and roll novel. Ray Shackleford has the ability to step into the past and call forth music that never was -- but should have been. His journey will be through both darkness and light, of self discovery and myth shattering. Like any good rock and roll tune, it is at once sad and joyous. The writing makes the time period he travels to (the 60's) so palpable, we feel as if we might walk around a corner and step into them ourselves. The scenes involving Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys' "lost" album Smile are alone worth any effort it might take to locate this book. In the song "American Pie", Don McLean posed the question: "Can music save your mortal soul?" If you read this novel, you will know without a doubt the answer is "Yes."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic!, September 1, 1998

By	johnglor94 "johnglor94" (Hamden, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Glimpses (Paperback)

A well-written character-oriented sci-fi, rock & roll novel This is a great read for science fiction fans and rock and roll fans alike. A compelling story of a man's search for meaning in his life (and sorting out his relationship with his late father) set against a background of "Twilight Zone-ish" in nature. This is a highly enjoyable novel. If you're a music fan, don't let the sci-fi tag steer you away from this, and vice versa. I've read this twice, and plan to read it again!