Glimpses

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

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?

Rock 'n' Roll Time Travel! Lewis Shiner had me hooked right away. I appreciate the music and the history, and understand Ray's and Graham's yearning for more. I enjoy Time Travel adventures, especially in familiar settings so I can go along for the ride. Even the late eighties present of this novel is a glimpse of the past. Music has made it to CDs, but still thrives on vinyl and tape, and the recording studios are relics for any reader who knows the technology. But no one ignores you to take a phone call, check email, send a text, or tweet their lunch menu in the middle of a conversation. Refreshing. Suspension of disbelief is required in large portions here, for the Time Travel, of course, but also for the characters. Sometimes the choices they make and the ease with which they accept a stranger's incredible tale are hard to swallow. But that's OK, it's fiction and the facts are what the author says they are. What I would have liked, though, is more Jimi Hendrix and less Ray agonizing over his personal relationships. It's good to know the characters, but smaller doses would have been fine. My impatience in this respect is far outweighed by Mr. Shiner's imaginative concept, however, and the subject matter of his book, so don't let that stop you. If you've traveled through the sixties as I have (by being born in the forties), or simply enjoy Classic Rock, Time Travel adventures, or just fantasizing over what might have been, this book is for you.

Ray Shackleford works as a stereo repair man in Dallas in 1988. His marriage is falling apart and he's coming to terms with the recent death of his father, whom he hated. Somehow, and presumably in response to his emotional problems, he starts channelling the great lost music from the 1960s, to the extent he can capture it, in perfect quality, on tape. Things progress and he starts slipping into parallel time streams in which he meets the likes of Brian Wilson and Jimi Hendrix at crucial points in their lives. The timeslips aren't explained, but they don't need to be, and they are entirely convincing.It's an ambitious and clever piece of slipstream fiction which deals with some big issues (the redemptive power of art, and how we deal with our individual and collective pasts) in a sophisticated manner, and the fantastic and the mundane are integrated with considerable skill. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1993 and on the basis of the overall idea and quality of the writing, which is elegant and well-structured, it probably deserved it.Unfortunately, large parts of it are phenomenally dull. I get why it has to deal with Ray's personal problems, but frankly, who cares? The long middle section - in which Ray goes to Mexico, to visit the location of his father's death, and becomes involved with Lori, an early example of the now mandatory Child Abuse Survivor Character In A Serious Novel - was so self-obsessed and neurotic I felt like hurling the book into a parallel time stream. Shiner returns to these themes in the final chapters. They're not as annoying as the Mexico section, but you skim through them, just in case the psychobabble and New Age flim-flam put in a return appearance. Shiner clearly thinks Lori is fascinating, but many readers will find themselves thinking they would lock themselves into a cupboard for a fortnight if they heard she was within 500 miles of them, just in case. I will freely admit I don't really do Relationship Novels, but I have read writers - Kate Atkinson comes to mind - who handle troubled family dynamics in a way which is compelling even when the characters are unsympathetic. Shiner is so far from that at times that it's almost embarrassing. In his acknowledgements, he thanks not one but two therapists. It doesn't come as a surprise.Which is a shame, because the music stuff, and the encounters with Wilson and Hendrix, are charming and convincing. and the fact that much of the music that was lost at time of writing - "Smile", "First Rays of the New Rising Sun" and what emerged as "Let It Be Naked" - has subsequently appeared, at least in palimpsest form, doesn't really diminish that. I was delighted to find out that Hendrix's grave is the third stone from the sundial, though it's a shame (if no surprise) that's the only joke in all 300 pages. Shiner's portrayal of London is surprisingly convincing for an American writer (there are one or two silly errors, but nothing too egregious), possibly because he used a personal interview with the UK's greatest music writer, Charles Shaar Murray, as source material, and it's a "blast" to see CSM turn up as a character in the novel (CSM fans - do you see what I did there?)..So caveat emptor. The best summary of this novel is to call up some sixties legends Shiner doesn't discuss at all - The Grateful Dead. There are dozens, maybe more, live albums by the Dead in which the listener has to wade through shedloads of desultory boogie and weedy, off-key vocals before the band locks in and takes off as a magnificent improvisatory monster that carries you off to amazing destinations. And then it's back to the boogie and those bloody vocals again. "Glimpses" is exactly like that. I think the good bits are just about good enough to tolerate the rest, but it's a damn close call.PS the Subterranean Press edition of this work features some of the worst printing I've ever encountered. At first I thought my varifocal specs were giving me gyp but on switching to my readers it was clear (or confirmed as unclear, if you like) that, on many pages, the typeface and font size change arbitrarily from line to line. This happens most in the "Mexico" section, which makes it not just metaphorically but literally painful to read.

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!