The Canyon Chronicles

As we near to three hours left in Judicious January, we feel an urge to add yet another post to this month's musings of mundane meanderings.

For some odd reason we haven't yet understood, a certain individual befriended us on Facebook.  This individual hails from an East Coast Bastion known as Annapolis.  We immediately took to this stranger and promoted his two books right from the "git go" without a clue as to whether they were truly deserving of such blind praise.

You know how we are about intuition.

Well, by and by, this individual posts up on his Facebook that he launched off his book in an e-incarnation on Amazon Kindle.  This was yesterday.

Somehow, we were an instantly smitten kitten.  We dutifully downloaded the Kindle software and then paid eight bucks to buy his book.  As our DF & LBRs know, for us to spend $8 on any one item is a great leap of faith and fate.

Well, we started  reading the book maybe about 7 pm, we can't remember.  I was half past Happy Hour, that's all we remember.  We had read one of the mere five reviews on Amazon for this book and somebody said it was a real page turner.  We immediately figured the author paid that person to post a shill review.

Well, we started reading the book and, LO, it WAS a page turner.  IN fact, we couldn't stop.  We turned electronic page after electronic page.

Meanwhile, we started howling at whatever moon phase it was.  We howled and howled to the point Susun started howling, too, even though she was nowhere near the computer, much less a freaking book.  Meanwhile, Susun started texting her daughter that "Little Yonni's gone feral again," howling with laughter about something she wishes she knew WTF he was laughing at.

Trust me, there's two kind of readers for this book.  People who know and people who don't.

If you know what the author is describing and you were part of that whole scene back in the early 80's Daze of Northern Arizona, this book is a rich, rich gift.  If you never knew those days, then perhaps you might be somewhat challenged because you wouldn't have any way to hang your hat on the author's many major pegs.

I feel this book was written as a direct and personal gift to all those of us who could (and can) relate to some part (or parts) of its all-too-true narrative.  This is Hunter S. Thompson personified and personalized for Northern Arizona between 1980 and 1988.

Many of our Dear Friends know that time period and its excesses and shortcomings all too well.  When you read this book, they all come back alive as if they were standing in front of you at ( fill in your own blank here.........).

For those of us who made our mark(s) and cut our teeth (and other anatomical parts) during those post-hippie, pre-regulatory Glory Daze, this book is for you.

We doubt any other book could possibly come along like this one.  It's a one-of-a-kind-keeper-kinda-book.  People who never knew Northern Arizona "back in the day"  might have a hard time relating to this author's Hunter S. Thompson machine gun style.  I have to say, I feel sorry for people who never knew this phase of Western (Mind) Expansion.  Whoever said "Go West, Young Man," was clearly speaking to the author.  He heeded such advice well.

For those of us who were intimately involved with the lifestyle(s) described in this book, it is like a homecoming and a validation of all we did together during those crazy, way-too-wild years.

None of us will be able to describe our exploits with the Total Recall Caliber of this author, but trust us, we've all "been there, done that" and reading his true-to-form, bare-it-all, no-holds-barred accounts of the good, the bad and the ugly really reminds each and every one of us of all the totally similar circumstances we shared during those totally transitional times.

We will never be able to return to those Glory Daze.  They are history. The bottom line is those days are long gone into the dust bin of history and the person now in charge is our Life's Janitor sweeping clean the hallways and hallmarks of decades-long-gone-detritus.

That's why it was so much fun to read this book.  It brought back to life perhaps one final time when we all believed we were totally immortal and nothing could touch us.  We were gods back then and we loved it--each and every moment of it.

We'd like to close this post with a Huge THANK YOU to Steve Carr.  He barred his soul in a way few men could ever do in his book.  To say he let it all hang out is like a colossal understatement.  I know of no one who could "stand & deliver" a better account of The Good Olde Daze than Steve Carr.

Ladies & Gentlemen, let me present to you---"The Canyon Chronicles."

(Cue trumpet fanfare and drum roll.)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Canyon-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00B7NI38U/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359585746&sr=1-1&keywords=the+canyon+chronicles

Enjoy & Many Cheers!  jp

PS--I bought the ebook on the PC Kindle platform for $8.  Such a deal.  We sure hope you do, too!