Glimpses

I was already on board with this novel when I knew it was an exploration of music nostalgia and What-Could-Have-Been with certain albums by giants, from Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, or Jimi Hendrix.

Let's skip big events in the whole time-travel setup and move right into ART. Culture. The meaning of what particular pieces could mean for us all. How music still has the power to change the world.

If ONLY some of these ALMOST albums had been made...

Yeah. I was right there. Totally on board.

But if that had been all there was to this novel, I'm absolutely sure that it wouldn't have been half as good or as emotional or self-reflective if we hadn't gotten to know Ray... the man working on the old demo sessions, his failing marriage, his show more alcoholism, and his relationship with his dead father.

This IS a nostalgia novel, by all means, but it's also a rather awesome novel of obsessions, working through issues, and learning to grow. And I don't think that could have happened without his music obsession. The whole time-travel, helping the young musicians work through their own problems or nudge them in just the right way to help them MAKE those lost albums and even make some money by "restoring" them in the present-day early '90s is only a side-story.

I loved the mirroring of self-to-artist and the push to grow despite all the baggage that holds us back. It was not only charming... but edifying. :) show less

This was a shaggy-dog rock’n’roll time travel fantasy, with appearances by Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles (briefly), so—right there you can probably figure out if it’s your jam or not, and though I had some quibbles, it was definitely enough my kind of thing to be fun. The plotting was all over the place, and looks like it was set up to include as many elements of the author’s autobiography as he could cram in—and for all his characterizations of their various neuroses and challenges, the novel’s women are all pretty much two-dimensional fantasy projections, plus one slightly complex difficult WIFE, ahem. OK, the protagonist is a bit of a dick. But despite those criticisms, to overuse an overused show more phrase, it is what it is—an enjoyable music-geeky tale, the kind of book you would have picked up on the wire rack of the candy/smoke shop on the corner in 1995 and definitely have gotten your $7.95 worth. show less

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. show more 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? show less

Lewis Shiner has written a great American Rock 'n Roll novel. Honestly, it was hard to get into as the pacing is a little awkward, but chalk this to the backbeat and keep pressing forward. Ray Shackleford has attained the ability to step back in time to music that was and tweak it to the greatness it deserved and could have been. He develops this ability shortly after a spiritual catharsis where he has to deal with his wounds and trauma of life - alcoholic abusive father, father's death, codependent mother, and more. It is a shamanic journey of messy spirituality in all the glory of Sex, Drugs and Rock'n Roll. . Only a healthy dash of The Beatles, The Doors, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, and Hendrix can push Ray to the spiritual show more transformation he so desperately needs. show less

It's good. Baby boomers and their rock gods, man. The Gen X perspective is a bit different. I wonder how I would have felt about it if I'd read when it came out, instead of almost twenty years after that.

...one of the best novels (with a slight sci-fi bent) about rock music I've ever read! I can't say enough good things about this book!:)