John Williams wrote: > What about The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe? > Where does it fit in the scheme of things? > > John Williams It was a very entertaining book but Tom Wolfe was taken for a ride by some of the characters in beginning with Jack the Fluke and Tom Woods who took Wolfe not only in hand but I presume, from their PCP-tuned ability to manipulate, probably for much more. I knew the two from the Sausalito waterfront where I spent some time in the early 60s and when I lived on a ferry boat there in 1975. They were two very dangerous fellows, besides being funny, and the last thing I heard they were both doing time, but that was quite awhile ago. Another figure in the book who was identified only as Stark Naked, and who had been one of Neil Cassady's lovers-she was the one taken off the bus in Houston and temporarily placed in a mental ward,--was a good friend of mine until her death from cancer five years ago. Those who knew her considered her to be the first "flower child." Where did the whole Ken Kesey adventure fit into the 60s? Certainly, for the drug culture it was a memorable point of reference, and for the more political, Kesey's bus parked at anti-war rallies was always a welcome sight. Jeff Blankfort
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