Author, Zachary Lazar has done the extraordinary. He has taken three unforgettable icons of the sixties and bonded them together in a haunting, mesmeric novel that will immediately transport you back to that turbulent era. Before you even begin the first page, the author states that this book is a work of fiction. That statement alone is about the only bit of fiction I found in this book, but it is, as the author notes, “products of the imagination”. Perhaps it is because Zachary Lazar brilliantly depicts these people and their lives so accurately and effortlessly that it seems quite factual.
The three icons he fluidly intertwine happen to be, Bobby Beausoleil (the first member of the “Manson Family” to be arrested for the brutal murder of music teacher, Gary Hinman), avant-garde, underground filmmaker, Kenneth Anger, and The Rolling Stones. Namely, Brian Jones, founder of The Rolling Stones, his untimely death and his relationship with his drug-addicted, yet exquisitely beautiful girlfriend, Anita Pallenburg, who leaves Brian Jones for Keith Richards. The one that seems to bind all three together is Kenneth Anger and his unique brand of films. Some, having starred Bobby Beausoleil, and another having captured the chaotic spectacle of the 1969 free concert at Altamont Speedway, that turned into one of the most violent days in rock history. The author also touches on Kenneth Anger’s fascination with the occult and a fictional book called The Sephiroth, which seems to find it’s way into most of the characters hands at some point, and which the author vaguely implies was one of the reasons the sixties ended so tragically.
This book is somewhat a recollection of what made these people who they were. How The Rolling Stones attained their distinctive style, and what pushed Brian over the edge from which he would never recover. What lured Anger to the occult to begin with? What could lead a common boy like Beausoleil to commit such a heinous murder? This book is a straightforward look into the lives these people may have had, before we turned them into supernatural stars. One thing is for sure, Zachary Lazar, did his homework on these people and created a vibrant tapestry that still manages to weave a certain aura of mysticism that can only be found in the that ethereal age known as The Sixties.
Reviewed by Bridget Colontonio
