Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty

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.

Guy Fontaine's time has passed. It's 2022, and he's an involuntary resident in assisted living at Mission Pescadero, California, "the premiere retirement community in Half Moon Bay"-and in the company of others his age who are yearning for a time when life was fun. Precisely: 1967, the days of sex, drugs, peace, protest, rock and roll, and revolution. The drugs may be a little different, but when change is necessary, revolution is still revolution. As an epic battle begins between authority and the oppressed, young and old, intolerance and free love-complete with twenty-four-hour news coverage-the radicals of the newly christened Pepper Land are going to raise hell. And crank up the music.

Tim Sandlin is the author of eight novels, including the GroVont trilogy and Honey Don't.