Glimpses

The first three years after discovering Glimpses by Lewis Shiner I read it once a year, which doesn't happen to me very often in reading a book. Ray Shackleford is a stereo repairman with problems. A father with whom he had a contentious relationship has died under mysterious circumstances, his marriage is unraveling like a ball string in his fingers and he can't quite grasp the threads to pull it back together, a burgeoning drinking problem, and a career as a rock star that never got started much less going anywhere. But he has discovered a means of escape, by retreating into the past, and not just any past, he retreats to the 60's to help the idols of his Rock `n' Roll dreams reclaim what they've lost, their lost albums. Brian Wilson's Smile, Jim Morrison and The Celebration of the Lizard, and Jimi Hendrix's The First Rays of the New Rising Sun. I first read this book because I was looking for a nice escapist book to lose myself in for a few hours. I found that. The more I read the more I found myself drawn in, especially to Ray's trips to the past, his getting drawn into Brian Wilson's family, living the Rock `n' Roll lifestyle with Jim Morrison as his guide, and Ray's truly heartbreaking attempts to keep Jimi Hendrix from dying. The question is will these trips to the past help Ray heal the same issues he has in his life? There is the element of time travel in this book. Is Ray really going back into the past and meeting his idols? Or is he suffering a series of strokes? Glimpses offers evidence of both, giving the reader the choice of which is truly occurring. On each reading of Glimpses, I found something new in it, some nuance previously undiscovered. I guess one could say that is due to the changing circumstances of my life. But isn't that the mark of any good book? That we can find something new in it from whatever perspective in life we are coming at it?

I loved the musical aspects of this book and descriptions of the interactions with Brian Wilson and Jimi Hendrix. I loathed the self absorption of the protagonist. He should have moved more in the direction of developing the new Hendrix album and less time on his obsessive Oedipus hatred of his father. The book disappointed me because the idea had so much potential. I WOULD like to meet Lori, however,

Hands-down,… Is one of the finest time travel novels ever written. If you have ever wanted to sit in studios where great rock stars made their music, this is the novel. If you ever want to enjoy a man’s point of you, delivered in masculine language from two different eras in American history, this is the novel for you. The version in question here is the Audible recording which is unique in its own way with the voice of this bassoon-based narrator. I am not going to give a single detail away. I only promise you will be entertained for hours and hours.

Lew has thrown a new twist on time travel and healing therapy to bring us Glimpses. One of my go to favorites since its first publishing, Glimpses follows our hero as he begins to deal with his father's passing and the other turmoil in his life, including an estranged wife and a mother who isn't coping well with her husband's passing. As he deals with his own issues, he learns that he can time travel back in time through music and change music history, influencing some of the biggest legend albums that never were from The Doors, Brian Wilson and Jimi Hendrix.

GLIMPSES was Lewis Shiner's 4th novel, published in 1993. The protagonist, Ray, a late 30s ex-drummer and now full time musical equipment repair guy discovers that he has the ability to imagine music that might have been, but never was, and not only get it to play out of a stereo system, but actually be recorded. When he plays a recording of "The Long and Winding Road" the way if would have sounded before Phil Spector got his hands on the master tapes for the owner of a Rhino Records type company that releases old bootlegs and rare outtakes and the like from 1960s era bands, he gets talked into trying to first recreate the rumored but never actually recorded "Celebration of the Lizard" by the Doors. There is a segment on Brian Wilson's begun in 1966 but then abandoned "Smile", and a final one about Jimi Hendrix's "The First Rays of the New Rising Sun. In between and at the end there is a lot of not particularly interesting stuff about Ray's relationships with his father, mother, wife and past and present girlfriends. The writing is OK but not particularly poetic and the pacing is best described as languid. If one is interested in the history of the Doors, Beach Boys and Jimi they will probably like this novel. The Brian Wilson segment is the best (and also the weirdest, as Ray time travels back to 1966 and Brian's Hollywood mansion a lá the movie "Somewhere in Time"), and the Hendrix segment the weakest (perhaps because I cared the most about it and as a 60 year old guitarist, knew more about Hendrix's music and life than I did about the Doors or the Beach Boys). And, being written in 1992 or 1993, the author could not have anticipated that "Smile" would actually have been completed by Brian Wilson in 2004, and "First Rays of the New Rising Sun" compiled and released in the late 1990s, followed by a Spector-removed version of "Let itBe". None is very much as described in the novel but one can hardly fault the author for that. Music fans like me who were there when this all went down might like it or not, depending on their degree of familiarity with the source material, but I think that the best audience might be the next generation who heard about these bands but were not there when they were playing live and who didn't grow up steeped in 1960s rock and roll culture. Not bad, especially for the price, but not awesome either. It was OK. J.M. Tepper

Loved how the author (as main character "Ray Shackelford," in 1st person mode) was able to " time travel" back to 1966 & convince Brian to finish the "Smile" album IN TIME so that it was able to be released months before "Sgt. Pepper." He also "meets" Jim Morrison & Jimi Hendrix. Ray's sexcapades are interesting as well.

I wouldn't give away any of this brilliant story, except to say that if the Beatles, the Doors, the Beach Boys or Jimi Hendrix have ever touched your life, then you are going to have the time of your life reading this!