The Psychedelic Symphony

A novel in four movements, The Psychedelic Symphony describes the changing lives of the inhabitants of Hastings Plain in the summer of 1968. The effects of Sixties counter-culture upon American society are witnessed through a cast of characters that includes Siegfried Underground-an acid-rock band-Cecil Hoffmann, a chronicler of adventures in realms accessed by psychedelic drugs, Angel, a Gypsy runaway/failed suicide, and young Jacob Renkovich, for whom the counter-culture represents nothing less than the promise of a new life. Although all elements of human life-natural and supernatural-are detailed in a style of magic realism, The Symphony achieves an authenticity quite rare in fiction dealing with Sixties culture. Revisionist histories of the Sixties (via novels, contemporary films and TV) have all too often exploited, misrepresented and distorted that decade, reducing its people and events to stereotypes and cliches. The Psychedelic Symphony avoids such superficiality, and in so doing depicts a Sixties that truly was.