Purple Haze Meets Viagra

Tim Sandlin’s new (and long-anticipated) novel, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty, will officially be released by Riverhead in January. I just received a review copy. The cover features a psychedelic VW microbus with a wheelchair strapped to the roof. Attention-getting and nostalgic for some Baby Boomers, horrific for others. I’m not sure if copies will be available when Tim participates on the “Writing the Changing West” panel at the Equality State Book Festival, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m., in the Nicolaysen Art Museum on Saturday, Oct. 21. The Jackson resident will be joined by panelists Jeffe Kennedy (Laramie), Page Lambert (Golden, Colo.), Geoff O’Gara (Lander), and Lily Burana (N.Y.). I will serve as moderator, an easy task with this crew. All I will have to do is make introductions and turn them loose. The session will end with a Q&A.

Here’s a description of Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty from Tim’s web site: "It's 2023, and Guy Fontaine is an unwilling new resident at Mission Pescadero, an assisted-living facility outside San Francisco. It doesn't take him long to realize that his fellow residents have reverted to the lifestyles they embraced in the sixties, complete with sex, drugs, and rock and roll (with a little Viagra thrown in for good measure). The Mission Pescadero staff, and the world outside, would like nothing more than to forget these aging hippies, but the residents want--no, demand--to be treated with respect and dignity. And they'll fight for it. When one resident's prohibited cat is discovered by Mission Pescadero's domineering administrator, the resulting confrontation mushrooms into an epic battle between authority and anarchy, complete with twenty-four-hour media coverage and the involvement of California's governor, Drew Barrymore. As tensions escalate, Guy finds himself cast as an unlikely radical in a drama he doesn't understand. By turns outrageous, hilarious, and, ultimately, touching, Tim Sandlin's new novel is a fascinating exploration of how the baby boomers are facing their own mortality. Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty is Sandlin at his iconoclastic best."
- posted by Michael Shay @ 12:27 PM