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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very much a period piece - but a decent one,
By Privacy, Please (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Jamey;: Novel of a Period, 1967-1968 (Hardcover)
This is a novel about a young hippie guitarist and singer of protest songs, the "Jamey" of the title, who achieves success and suddenly feels like he's buying into the bogus values he rejected in the first place. That theme sounds like the biggest cliche in the world now, but the author does such a good job including all the hallmarks of the period, from be-ins to draft dodgers to earnest student political workers to teen fan magazines to middle-aged salesmen pushing plastic love beads, that the novel is interesting to read like watching a vintage TV show.
At the beginning, Jamey operates within a relatively safe world, playing for college students and dating a beautiful liberal college student, but he finds himself inexplicably drawn to a hippie girl named Poppy, who is living much more on the edge of society and the law. In being with Poppy, he finds both inspiration and truth, but there's a feeling throughout that he's probably idolizing her way too much and that she's not nearly as interested in him as he is in her - that her life is merely a bunch of stops along a freeway of self-discovery, and he just happens to be the current one. The ending confirms the feeling, though the ultimate conclusion is left open. I can't help but wonder, reading this now, what sort of senior citizens Jamey and Poppy are turning out to be, if they even managed to live that long. Scraps of Jamey's purported song lyrics are included throughout the book and while some of the protest songs, apparently written in a Dylanesque vein, are cringe-worthy, his fictional love song to Poppy that becomes his big hit seems believable. I would add that for students of 60's music, 67-68 was probably a little late for the type of music that Jamey is supposedly doing, and perhaps also for the type of promotion he receives; seems like 65-66 or even 66-67 would make more sense. But this is a minor nit and it's still a good read if you want a vintage feel. Remembering how young Jamey and Poppy are also keeps some of the supposedly deeply thoughtful parts of the book from seeming too ridiculous.
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