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Jimi Hendrix Turns 80

by Tim Sandlin

Jimi Hendrix Turns 80 Cover

ISBN13: 9781594489334
ISBN10: 1594489335
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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.

Review:

"Though Jimi doesn't make an appearance in this near-future satire, Sandlin (Skipped Parts; Sorrow Floats) has fun with his surviving fans. The year is 2022 (the year Jimi would've turned 80), and strait-laced retiree Guy Fontaine, at his daughter's behest, moves into the Mission Pescadero nursing home, where aged hippies, former radicals and random California nutjobs refuse to give up their sex, drugs and rock and roll. Guy is stricken with an acute case of culture shock, but gets over it with the help of a few friendly residents who aren't living in a perpetual summer of love. But just as Guy is getting into the scene, the residents take control of the facility to protest the lack of respect they receive from their families, doctors and the home's administrators. Though not all of the humor works across generations (chants of 'Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh. AARP is gonna win'), most does, and the action, thankfully, is far from bingo night and crafts hour." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Sort of like a Rolling Stones concert....Sandlin will tap a growing audience that should find this clear-eyed, satirical look into the not-too-distant future informative if not, perhaps, a little scary." Library Journal

Review:

"Hilarious in the fine-tuned details and rapid-fire dialogue, Sandlin's antic yet precision-aimed and unfailingly entertaining novel is a mordantly witty, covertly poignant, and genuinely insightful dissection of our fear and loathing of old age." Booklist

Review:

"Sandlin can see that there is a kind of gruesome comedy in what happens to us, but the humor is never mean, and he loves his people too much not to understand that their grief and nostalgia and frustration is real." Nick Hornby, The Believer

Review:

"Tim Sandlin takes us on a comic flashback to the future of the sixties generation that can give you the giggles and the willies at the same time. He's as tight and funny as anyone doing this comedy-novel thing." Christopher Moore

Synopsis:

In 2023, Viagra joins sex, drugs, and rock and roll at Mission Pescadero, an assisted-living facility outside San Francisco. It doesn't take unwilling new resident Guy Fontaine long to realize that his fellow residents have reverted to the lifestyles they embraced in the '60s.
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About the Author

Tim Sandlin is the author of six novels that have made him something of a cult figure. He's been likened to Jack Kerouac, Tom Robbins, Joseph Heller, J. D. Salinger, Garrison Keillor, Pam Houston, and David Lynch, but, in fact, he's a true original with his own incomparable voice and vision.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
yipslsquirrel, April 7, 2008 (view all comments by yipslsquirrel)
A rollicking good tale, written by an author who is not from California but obviously did his homework well about the cultural and physical geography of the Bay Area. (I remark as resident of the SF Bay Area for almost all my adult life, a participant-observer scholar of the counterculture, and a former civil rights investigator of discrimination in residential care facilities for the elderly. Tim Sandlin is a Wyoming native and resident, but knows whereof he speaks.) A group of grumpy elders in varying states of mental or physical need or independence, most of whom are SF Bay area hippies, are at a posh but abusive retirement home, mostly held against their will by manipulative adult children and conservators, and treated dismissively and shabbily by cynical administrators. The humor is sometimes slapstick and sometimes sly, and at its best when it turns cliches about the Sixties on their (acid) heads.

When there is one indignity too many foisted on the residents, they unite, take two hostages, and rename the place Pepper Land (or is it Pepper Land? They can't agree on this either.) Eventually the governor of California intervenes on behalf of the residents, with an assist from TV news.

Otheres have called "Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty" a cautionary tale, and I must agree. Despite the farcical nature of some of the characters and events, this could be any of us, and its sometimes barbed humor hits close to home. 2022, the year that Jimi Hendrix would have turned eighty had he survived, is not so far in the future that we can't imagine its possible abuses along with Sandlin. And the cultural events and lessons of the SIxties are not so far in the past that they cannot be invoked as changing times dictate.

Thius is an enjoyable read, well-written, with many built-in chuckles. Not all the characters among the protagonist elders are lovable as individuals, and in this lies some of the story's authenticity.



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Curt Pasisz, October 17, 2006 (view all comments by Curt Pasisz)
Tim Sandlin's new novel, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty, makes you scared senseless of growing old while looking forward to it at the same time. He states that sometime in the future, librarians will move this book from fiction to non-fiction, and I have every inclination to believe him. No matter how bizarre some of the turns in this book; it's not hard to think that this could be real, right down to Drew Barrymore as Governor of California.

Imagine hippies and boomers, who started a whole new counter culture, getting so old that their children think they can't take care of themselves anymore. An assisted living facility is just what these people have rebelled against their whole lives: the establishment. Here they are, older, wiser (most of the time) and with much more worldly experience than the ones taking care of them. Now they are part of a booming business, with their children all too eager to drop them off, take their money and discard them once and for all.

Thrown right into the middle of all this is Guy Fontaine. Unlike the other residents, he was never a hippie, never did drugs or protested, and wasn't at Woodstock. He's from Oklahoma after all. But one trait they all share is that they know for sure, yet refuse to believe that they are getting old before their time. When a resident's cat is confiscated, and the dung hits the fan at Mission Pescadero, Guy finds himself as the unlikely leader of the aging bunch, who prove that they still have plenty to offer, with mostly hilarious and sometimes tragic results.

Throw in Viagra, LSD, pot, orgies, protests, rock concerts, dementia, Alzheimer's, catheters and more outrageous characters than any other Sandlin book, and you've got a novel destined to bridge the gap between generations. I've never before read a book that I could recommend to my sixty year-old father, my fifty year-old uncle, my forty year-old friend, my thirty-year old wife and my twenty year-old brother. And once they read it, I'm sure there are many more people of different ages that they would recommend it to. And the reason is that Tim's themes are universal without being set in a conventional setting. Amidst all the craziness going around at the facility, new love is found, death is dealt with, friendships are made and broken, and happiness is both a fleeting memory and
also right around the corner. Within ten pages of this book, I went from snorting out loud laughing to being choked up with tears. And not just once, but consistently throughout. Tim is one of those rare authors that makes me have feelings that are almost identical to those I've had in actual life situations, kind of like a karmic deja vu.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781594489334
Author:
Sandlin, Tim
Publisher:
Riverhead Hardcover
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Humorous
Subject:
Musicians
Subject:
Baby boom generation
Subject:
Retirement communities
Copyright:
2007
Publication Date:
20070118
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
320
Dimensions:
8.50x5.78x1.06 in. .93 lbs.
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Jimi Hendrix Turns 80 Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$8.50 In Stock
Product details 320 pages PENGUIN PUTNAM TRADE - English 9781594489334 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Though Jimi doesn't make an appearance in this near-future satire, Sandlin (Skipped Parts; Sorrow Floats) has fun with his surviving fans. The year is 2022 (the year Jimi would've turned 80), and strait-laced retiree Guy Fontaine, at his daughter's behest, moves into the Mission Pescadero nursing home, where aged hippies, former radicals and random California nutjobs refuse to give up their sex, drugs and rock and roll. Guy is stricken with an acute case of culture shock, but gets over it with the help of a few friendly residents who aren't living in a perpetual summer of love. But just as Guy is getting into the scene, the residents take control of the facility to protest the lack of respect they receive from their families, doctors and the home's administrators. Though not all of the humor works across generations (chants of 'Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh. AARP is gonna win'), most does, and the action, thankfully, is far from bingo night and crafts hour." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review" by , "Sort of like a Rolling Stones concert....Sandlin will tap a growing audience that should find this clear-eyed, satirical look into the not-too-distant future informative if not, perhaps, a little scary."
"Review" by , "Hilarious in the fine-tuned details and rapid-fire dialogue, Sandlin's antic yet precision-aimed and unfailingly entertaining novel is a mordantly witty, covertly poignant, and genuinely insightful dissection of our fear and loathing of old age."
"Review" by , "Sandlin can see that there is a kind of gruesome comedy in what happens to us, but the humor is never mean, and he loves his people too much not to understand that their grief and nostalgia and frustration is real."
"Review" by , "Tim Sandlin takes us on a comic flashback to the future of the sixties generation that can give you the giggles and the willies at the same time. He's as tight and funny as anyone doing this comedy-novel thing."
"Synopsis" by , In 2023, Viagra joins sex, drugs, and rock and roll at Mission Pescadero, an assisted-living facility outside San Francisco. It doesn't take unwilling new resident Guy Fontaine long to realize that his fellow residents have reverted to the lifestyles they embraced in the '60s.
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