Customer Reviews

Tripping: A Memoir of Timothy Leary & Co.

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Tripping: A Memoir by B. H. Friedman is a remarkably account of the life and times of Dr. Timothy Leary, including his accomplishments and influence with an active coterie of students, teachers, and artists during the freewheeling decade of the 1960's. Vividly offering an exclusive perspective of the world in sixties, Tripping details Leary's progressive discoveries and passion for LSD, cannabis, mushrooms, and other psychologically altering substances as part of his controversial views with respect to the liberation of life, love, beauty, society, and the "journey of peace". A "must read" for anyone with an interest in Timothy Leary's life and thought, Tripping is very strongly recommended as a one-of-a-kind memoir which documents of his life story.

B.H. Friedman applies a master's literary touch to the multifaceted mystery of personal and social transformation aided by the psychedelic mushroom, showing yet again, it is the artists who lead the way. Here is an honest and intimate memoir of a fateful meeting between that irascible and unrepentant, brilliant and erratic, patriotic revolutionary trickster, Timothy Leary, with a cross section of the New York "high" society. Take that any way you like. Friedman, through Leary's provocation, turned on, tuned into his true self, dropped out of the booming New York real estate market, and became a full time writer, a decision that cost him an estimated 10-20 million dollars, give or take a few--and he is ever grateful. Leary comes across as Leary was: a paradox, mercurial, manipulative, ego centric, inconsistent, sane and insane, a mass of contradictions, like life itself. Friedman's thoughtful, experienced, and rich, textured prose is just right for the difficult task of portraying Leary and the (r)evolution he was an advocate for, without stifling it because of a few blunders. This is a wonderful and soulful memoir that I hope inspires more.