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Fiction
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Although it was published in 1962 it took a few years for Heller's anti-war masterpiece to catch
us up. But when it did -- wow, what a piece of work. An intense and weird satire based on a US
airforce base in Italy, it is full of great characters and snappy phrases and has some of the most
wonderful irreverent black humour ever. Extremely clever and meaningful, of course, it was
another one that had tremendous influence. Like all great art it had a profound lesson to teach
us -- that Catch 22 is a real phenomenon that affects all our lives. But you gotta laugh at the
irony of it all. Haven't you?
Fantastically influential, this is the best of Hermann Hesse's work. The tale of a strange
monastic order of intellectuals who practice a technique of transcendence through a game
-- The Glass Bead Game of the title -- it inspired so many of us. Leary named his organis-
ation after the city in which the story is set and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love structured
their vast smuggling operation around the concepts it contains. The book contains a
number of appendices among which are three of the most incredibly beautiful, inspiring and
well written short stories ever. It is worth buying just for these.
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This is another one that set our world on fire. For many of us it was our introduction to the
world of eastern mysticism that could only send us chugging down to the Penguin Bookshop for Christmas Humphrey's books on Buddhism. A short but extremely elegant novel that sets itself up as a biography of the Lord Buddha, we had no idea just how closely it stuck to Gautama's teachings. The lead character -- Lord Buddha, himself -- comes across as a totally unpretentious, very human but very self-actualised individual, just the way he should. The book ends with a scene of such immense evocational power that it changed many a life. This book, alone, stands out from amongst Hesse's work as a singular positive and up experience from a writer whose books redefine angst. This must be the only work of Hesse's in which there
are not suicides. An excellent, elevating and beautiful read.
If you have not read this wonderful novel of a society based around increased consciousness,
you are not complete as a person. Encapsulating some of the key phrases that we use to
define our reality (like 'here and now'), this is a visionary treatise that not only bears witness to
the inspirational aspects of the psychedelic experience but offers a blueprint of sorts for how
such a society might be structured. Revolutionary in its time and, unfortunately, still revolution-
ary, this is one of the most significant books to be published in the 20th century. Groundbreak-
ing, earth shaking anarchy of the most fundamental and insidious kind. Good on ya, Aldous.
One of the great books.
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The book that started it all -- Kerouac's literary masterpiece. This, my friends, is lit-er-at-ure.
Like a Thelonious Monk number, it is a strange blend of rhythms and counter-rhythms played
out through surreal illusions and slightly embarrassing free-form, somewhat experimental,
prose. Dripping with hippness and oozing speed-induced weirdness, this is the tale of Dean
Moriarty and his travels through America. While it might seem tame and fairly innocent now,
when it first appeared it was incredibly experimental and anarchic. But, in the grey gabardine
society that prevailed at the time it did give so many people hope. One of a half a dozen or so
books that have truly changed society, this is not the easiest read in the world but certainly one
worth trying.
The last, if not least of the counterculture's unholy trinity, Burroughs is another infinitely hip
writer and this is his most famous and most readable book. It has its moments but the weird-
ness overwhelms readability far too often. Never the most approachable writer (except, of
course, from the rear) in the genre, Burroughs gets weirder and weirder from this book on.
Set in Tangier (I believe) it is heavy on insects and paranoia. One of the strangest books I
have ever read, the Moroccan sequences are often fairly evocative but mainly of sweaty
homosexual liaisons and shooting up. Indeed, this is a junky book through and through; every
page reeks of Bill's smack habit and the whole thing is permeated by a dark and depressing
smack generated view of reality.
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