Sleeping Where I Fall [Paperback]

Peter Coyote (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint; First Edition first Printing edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158243011X
• ISBN-13: 978-1582430119
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful In Spite of It All, December 31, 2002

By 

Donald W. McFarland (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sleeping Where I Fall (Paperback)

I've read other reviewers taking Peter Coyote to task for writing what they seem to think is just a self-congratulatory puff piece to satisfy his own ego. I disagree. Not once in the book did I ever see him claim that the existence he and his friends lived was the 'only' way or the 'best' way, nor did he try to make himself out to be some kind of faultless angel who never made a mistake. He simply told, in as straightforward and unembellished a way as possible, what happened in his own personal experience, good and bad, and described the process that took him from one stage of existence to another. That kind of honesty takes courage few of us can claim to have in any level of our lives.

And anyone who was as heavily into drugs as he was to have survived at all, not to mention completely turning their life around and becoming successful in their own chosen field, should be congratulated. I've known enough people in my own experience who didn't, and I grieve for them to this day.

I, for one, am very glad he wrote this book. In 1964 I was only twelve years old and have always felt a bit cheated that I was just too young to have been a part of what I felt even then to be a special and perhaps irreplaceable time. Reading "Sleeping Where I Fall" has given me a sense of almost having been there myself which I've never gotten from any other work on the era in quite the same way.

Thank you for writing this memoir, Peter. I do sincerely appreciate it.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Hippies and ex Hippies, October 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sleeping Where I Fall (Paperback)

Peter Coyote's memoir is a must read for anyone who lived through those crazy and wild times of the 60's. His intimate involvement with so many aspects of the counter culture grass roots movement, his command of the English language,and ability to tell a tale makes this a very enjoyable account.

For me, it was also a sentimental journey. I lived on the Olema farm many years after Peter and his clan had left. His description of the place mirrored many of my own memories. I believe that many new readers will find Peter's account brings back fond and crazy memories.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A RECOLLECTION OF THE FUTURE TRIP, September 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle (Hardcover)

Several summers ago I began to notice that teenagers were dressing like hippies of the 60's. It made me wonder why the Hippie movement had "failed" and why it was again resurfacing, even if only in costume. Peter Coyote offers some interesting insight.

Today there is a GAP in the Haight; Peter Coyote takes us back to when there was a Free Store there, and discusses its implications. He makes us a part of the experience with his lucid prose and reflective thoughts about a magical time. Mixing his personal experiences with reflective commentary, he presents it warts and all. Besides offering a plethora sixties sex stories for the mass market, Coyote offers some valuable ideas to ponder as well.

There are stories of encounters with the Hopi, who had actually managed to accomplish what the Hippies were trying to do. Stories culled from a diary that still sparkle with the verve of the time. There are stories of how communal life brought comfort and pain, and of how one can more than survive without money or a job, but not without a role to play.

The highlight of the book is an idea Noah Purifoy suggested for problem solving, an artistic approach, an "antipodal shifting between the realms of logic and intuition," the core of the creative process and a problem solving mechanism of the highest order. Coyote shows how it was used during his tenure on the California Arts Council. This idea deserves a book of its own.

The reason Peter Coyote's book is so timely and important is because we are about to reenter that time once again, but this time more as Hopi than as Hippie. The Global Village (WEB) has placed the entire world in communal proximity, and the unresolved problems of the Hippie experience will be the problems of the Internet Generation. It is the problem of the Hopi's prophetic sign that, "Spider woman will have covered the world with her web."

Now that Communism has fallen, can Capitalism be far behind? "Capitalism is dying, boy." Wall Street financier Morris Cohon tells his Hippie son Peter Coyote, "It's dying of its own internal contradictions." He predicts it will take 50 years and not the 5 his son thinks. Morris was probably right, and that is what makes this book significant. The book offers us a look at our first step in the tribal direction. The Hippies didn't "fail," instead, they just saw it first and got started sooner than the rest, just like all artists do.

For the nostalgic, it is a trip back to a bygone time. For the aware, it is a preliminary discussion about the trip of our future civilization. Take your pick, it's your trip to take.