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Audio Book Reviews

January 7, 2007

Here's the latest "review" of The Audio Book of Ginny Good:

My Year in Reading 2006

Best book: Gerard Jones's Audio Book of Ginny Good. A delight. I'd already read and loved the book-book, but the audio book is simply not-to-be-missed. The musical clips Gerard includes throughout enhance both the story and the from-the-gut emotional reactions you'll have to whatever you're listening to, whether hilarious, sad, or both, and Gerard is one of those rare and magical storytellers who'll have you laughing your ass off even as you're crying your guts out at life's joys, tragedies, mundane horrors, and absurdities.


And here are four more:

LOVE the audio. Love the story and love the music on the audio. Haven't heard some of those songs in years, but I remember that music and suddenly realized that I missed it. Your website's pretty awesome too. Keep doing what you're doing. You're good at it, and you seem to be enjoying yourself. That's about as good as it gets, I think.

Whatever I said so far about The Audio Book of Ginny Good was, if not wrong, surely less than adequate. Thanks to you (sheesh) I've been taking personal inventory, putting it down on electronic paper, and having the time of my life, as they say. Even though you almost certainly had no intention of inspiring anyone, that's what you did. The Audio Book of Ginny Good really was a work of art. Art for anyone, and magic for me.

I've spent the last week or so listening to you reading your book on your web site. It has been a long time since I felt so completely sucked into a world that a writer has created. Some long time ago, I spent a year at the South Pole and got into reading The Alexandria Quartet, and read the whole thing over four days. From that, I still have images of the markets of Alexandria in my mind, and from you I see Golden Gate Park, although I've never been to Egypt and I know SF rather little. Anyway, yours is a great book.

Gerry you fucker what a great book. I enjoyed listening to it as much as you obviously enjoyed reading it. I have to admit I was apprehensive about a non-publisher narration and the multimedia aspect (from both a production and an interruption-of-story aspect) but I kept an open mind and you acquitted yourself magnificently. I know you are becoming unspeakably wealthy with your website, so I'm about to PayPal you $50 for a signed copy of Ginny Good. The Brainbell Jangler

Book Reviews

December 24, 2009

Gerard, I got GG from Amazon and read it last night. This book should be a classic of American literature. I particularly enjoyed the magical side of your writing. The acid trip was so brilliantly described it made me feel like I was down in that burnt out redwood stump. It takes a real master to transform a visual, mystical experience into words that mean anything. You did it. Congratulations. Loved the spider theme, and the Thumbelina at the end where Ginny and Elliot are tiny and full of light and swinging around on vines. Also liked the teen sexuality, which, if my recollections are correct, seems accurate and funny. The whole teen section was great and studded with lovely period bits like Coty perfume and Yma Sumac, and Chet Baker Sings. I still listen to Chet. Although Ginny was the doomed goddess, Melanie was the character I related to. That junked out threesome was priceless (I guess it really wasn't a threesome). It's a beautiful book, full of wit and humanity, and I assume the only reason you couldn't get it published was because you had no MFA literary connections. Or, because the quality was too high. I am so pleased you put some writing from Celine on your site. He is my all time favorite author. Sad story, though.

Oh, anyone with any branes who read the sucker loved it too but that comes to a total of four people so far, including you...that's fewer than one person a year since it's been published, which is fine with me--one person who knows how to read is better than ten trillion who don't. L'Aimant by Coty, yes, not much compares to true love forever when you've just turned sixteen. I think it was Tinkerbelle, but Thumbelina would have done the job if she'd been in town. Celine's been my literary hero since Ralph Wood stole me a copy of Journey to the End of the Night from the basement of City Lights. The audio book is better than the real book 'cause it's got snippets of music and voices to go with the words, like Chet Baker actually singing My Funny Valentine, and I read them the way I wanted them to be read. My favorite thing about the whole book is that it's out of print and I got all the rights back from the publisher, plus a bunch of books for fifty cents apiece. I kind of liked the funeral scene, but the ones you mentioned weren't bad, either. Thanks. G.

Oh, oh, here's the index to the audio book so you can see who sings and says what where:


August 18, 2007

Yeah, you were right , I was getting to the really good parts...I have read non-stop last night until about 4am, just couldn't put it down at all...then I sat here a long, long time in the living room and just held the book ...Holy shit!!!...it's by far better than I expected but I'm so exhausted that I need to sleep. It's a real tour de force all right...So much different from the first half of the book somehow, so frighteningly honest and so many levels beyond levels, I am just speechless for right now. It does remind me of Salinger and "Catcher in the Rye" and "A perfect day for a bananafish" and other maybe Chekhov and my beloved Kafka. I'll write tomorrow, need to digest it...

Nobody ever read any Kafka while he was still alive, either. Someone said it was like Salinger after he grew up...I liked that, I've got nothing against Salinger whatsoever...or Grass or Celine or Nabokov or Flannery O'Connor, etc., they're all way better writers than I could ever dream of being; I just do what I do the way I do it and that's plenty. You'd really like the audio book, just 'cause of the music and the rest of the historical context. It's sweet to find someone who liked my little book. That, I admit, is partly why I wrote the sucker although just the writing of it and making the audio book for my own exquisite reasons was fun, too. Oh, the first half's supposed to be different from the last half so people can see what changed...that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Thanks. G.

June 27, 2007

I am grateful. I am satisfied.

Cool. Me, too. G.

March 4, 2006

Let me first say that I have struggled for quite some time now, not only to write this review, but to make some kind of sense of why a book as magnificent as "Ginny Good", has yet to receive major publishing. I have not been able to put my finger on that mysteriously wonderful ingredient, so generously portioned to the hungry mouths of the readers, until tonight that is...

I awoke tonight around 3 am into that half asleep, half awake, forever fleeting, dreamlike clarity when it finally hit me; Gerard Jones' writing has a profound Zen like appreciation for life and each of its precious moments and characters, no matter how big or small. An appreciation so before its time, that this generation is still studying tirelessly to even grasp the Eastern philosophy concepts that are so effortlessly displayed in Mr. Jones work.

In this "mostly true" tale of delightful events, the main character, presumably Gerard Jones, may come off a bit boring at first, but that is only because you are an unenlightened Grasshopper. Keep reading; he will grow on you, I promise. He is hardly square as he finds the perfect use for the "F" word in the most ironic of life's situations. His gift for sighting the subtle details that make up a man's life, is truly unsurpassed, as he leads you on a sporadic adventure through the events of his life, all the way from young boy, to grown man.

I remember when I was a kid, my father telling me about the time he saw Jimi Hendrix at a pathetic Utah theme park called Lagoon. "Wow, really dad? Was it amazing?" I asked, to which he replied "No one really got Jimi back then, they actually Boo-d him..." my father so painfully reminisced his generations blind spots.

One day me and many other fathers will tell our children about the time when Gerard Jones couldn't get a mainstream publisher. Whether you listen to the FREE version of the book available via download from Gerard's website everyonewhosanyone.com, or purchase it online; you will read Ginny Good when your mind is ready to receive it.

Dominic Greco (Independent movie writer/director of The Tall Man, Plastic, Rose Park, Suicide Butterflies & Homicide, and Terror Trilogy X2)

Hey, Dominic, GG's a "real" book, like it's in the Library of Congress, etc. Why nobody read the sucker is simple: People are slaves and mushrooms and morons. They're kept in the dark and only read the horseshit their owners feed them. I wrote it the way I wanted to write it and got it published the way I wanted it published. Nothing else matters. Thanks. G.

December 9, 2006

gerard, thanks for sending me a copy of "ginny good" and please know that i not only enjoyed reading it but felt it belongs in high schools, colleges and public libraries the world over. the rich writing and your amazing attention to details (were you taking notes in the 60's?) were remarkable. powerful stuff, not that it will save anybody's soul like a good verse of bible but it certainly presents a unique slice of life circa the late 60's and somewhat beyond that should be understood if only as a cautionary tale for any future 'me' generations. not to say that we didn't live our lives out fully and deeply and richly but some amount of restraint would have done us good and ginny.

Yeah, it's a cautionary tale as well as a good book but nobody pays much attention to either of those things anymore. People have to figure stuff out for themselves. I didn't pay much attention to cautionary tales when I was a kid; if I had I wouldn't have had a cautionary tale to tell and wouldn't have written a good book. Thanks. G.

September 14, 2006

Gerard, At first I liked you just because of your website. Then I purchased Ginny Good and read it during my classes for a few days. I've just put it down about 2 minutes ago. So perhaps the fact that I felt the need to write you can speak for itself. By the time I finished it I wanted to cry then thought "This is just a book!" then swallowed the lump in my throat and re-read the last page. I guess it's got to be annoying...publishing a memoir-esque book and having people contact you thinking they know you..bleh, I'd hate that. I don't know what else to say but I want to keep typing. I'm glad there is someone like you out there (who I don't even know but feel a connection to). I guess that's always a sign you're a good writer, when genuinely introverted people crawl out the woodwork sending you emails of appreciation.. Ahhh I don't know what else to say. "Ginny Good" changed my day, my WEEK. It made me feel all squirmy in my stomach and god it must've been amazing to trip in the red wood forest. (I think I actually chuckled outloud in my astronomy class when I read about you tearing open the pinecone curious to find what all the fuss was about) Ok well, I've stolen enough of your time. Take care.

August 14, 2006

"Ginny Good is wonderful. The characters are real, the tone is perfect. I think the acid trip in La Honda is the best description of a trip I've read. I especially liked the end of that chapter when you see the tree stump the next day. You got the whole thing. So many scenes are like that. Ginny and Melanie and Elliot and Wendy--all of them seem like people I might have known. You're the best character of all--both smart ass and tender, sometimes lost, naive, but most of the time smart & always curious about what's going to happen next. I did laugh and I did cry. Sometimes I laughed out loud and the last third of the book I read late into the night. Thanks for creating that world and getting the book published so I could read it. Keep hyping it! I will too. I'm going to order another copy that's not signed so I can lend it out. I haven't listened to the audio version yet, but am looking forward to it."

June 6, 2005

From Grumpy Old Bookman:

"...I find myself with a problem. I want to be complimentary. In fact more than complimentary: I want to demonstrate that this is a book that I admire enormously. But the simple fact is that the language of praise and enthusiasm has been so cheapened and coarsened by years of overuse at the hands of publicists that the words no longer mean anything. Worse than that: they evoke a contemptuous curl of the lip.

Suppose I were to say: brilliant, wonderful, moving. The trouble is, you've heard it all before. And the last time you read a book with that sort of endorsement on the cover, you weren't too impressed.

So, let's skip the shorthand compliments. I will just say that this is a remarkable book. I enjoyed reading it, and I recommend it unreservedly..."

If you wanna read all the rest, click this:


January 1, 2005

Editor's Choice, Best of 2004, Number Nine, pfssh...if she would've called it "fiction" it would've been Number One.

August 27, 2004

Hey, some chick named Nina L. Diamond just wrote up some big feature story about me and my little website and Ginny Good in Independent Publisher. Check it out. "Way Cool: Gerard Jones Finally Gets Published!"

July 17, 2004

The Satellite
N. Central Florida
July 7, 2004

By Gerard Jones
Monkfish Book Publishing Company
357 pages, Trade Paperback, $16.95

Commit a subversive act—buy this book.

Author Gerard Jones is an Internet character. His web site, "Everyone Who's Anyone in Adult Trade Publishing," is about his hilarious guerrilla war on the publishing industry, largely focused on his efforts to find Ginny Good a home at a large, prestigious publishing house.

That didn't happen. Instead, Ginny Good comes from a small, independent publisher and Jones is aggressively marketing the book via e-mail, interviews and any other under-the-radar tactics he thinks might work.

You should buy this book because the author is a crusader against that monolithic conglomerate-heavy world of big-time book publishing. But this is more than a mere indie-publishing jihad. This is a wonderful book.

It's either a memoir or a novel—we can't be sure—about coming of age in San Francisco in the mid-1960s, with a cast of characters including the Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary—the whole Hee-Haw Gang, as a matter of fact.

It reminds us that the great book about the counter-culture of the 1960s is Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which focused on Kesey—a celebrated young novelist on the run from the law. Other characters Wolfe wrote about in that book were also formidable writers: Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove), Robert Stone (A Hall of Mirrors) and Hunter Thompson (Fear and Loathing Las Vegas). When he got the contract to write the Acid Test in 1967, Wolfe thought, "I'd better write this book fast before Kesey or one of those other guys beats me to the punch and writes The Great American Novel of the 1960s."

All of this is to say that Jones, with Ginny Good, might have finally produced the novel that conveys the hope, desperation and eventual disillusionment of that time and place.

Jones presents Ginny Good as a true story with no names changed. In fact, he invites lawsuits (any publicity being good publicity), in part to bring his long-lost acquaintances out of hiding and back into his life. Virginia "Ginny" Good was the love of his life, his muse, his emotional tormentor. She was also—in Jones' view—the first hippie, and the sister of Manson family member Sandra Good and an irrestible soul.

It doesn't matter whether this story is true or not (Jones calls it "mostly true"). In any memoir, lines between recollection and re-creation are often blurred. But Jones recounts the moments in rich, evocative detail. Rarely do you see a sense of place conveyed so vividly. It's a story to hear, see and taste.

Though he accepted the ethos of the 1960s on its surface, the maddening and irrepressible force of nature that was Ginny Good continues to haunt him these many years later. She was a free spirit, but although he tolerates her prolific gang of lovers, he wants her to himself.

To describe the "plot" in too much detail would diminish the book. In the end, this book is about voice and it's Jones' voice that carves this book into the reader's soul. It's like a long evening of fascinating conversation and recollection. Though not a short book, it can be read in one gulp—it's so seamless and effortless and is obviously the work of a tremendous craftsman.

You could buy this book on Amazon, but as former President Nixon used to say, "It would be wrong." Keep to the spirit of the book. Go to Goerings, Books, Inc., or Omni (or another independent book store of your choosing) and ask them to order Ginny Good. It will be worth the wait—and it will be your revolutionary act for the day.

William McKeen
Chair, Department of Journalism
University of Florida

July 11, 2004

"Ginny Good is 350 pages long. The first 50 pages should have had more rework than they got. So sue me, Gerard. The last 100 pages are a tour de force...

"Gerard Jones, an adopted West Coast writer, records some part of what it was like to live through the hippie movement as a participant in Ginny Good from a viewpoint Tom Wolfe can't reproduce...

"I was expecting a wannabe trying to coast on image over the whole thing, but insofar as I remember what went on, he's got it right: a very brief constellation of addlepated idealists, nice college kids, Lumpenproletariat, not-so-nice college kids, narcissists, psychopaths, crazies, addicts, nymphomaniacs, neurotics, runaways, poseurs, wealthy idlers, drifters, opportunists, and hangers-on that was almost immediately dissipated in relentless media saturation and tourist-trappery, coordinated by impresarios who became rich beyond the dreams of avarice...

"The only stable, actual marriage in the account is his own parents', and he describes his father's final illness and his funeral at the end of the book. The kind of love that sustains the stable family relationship he has in Oregon seems to be the one positive value he can endorse...

"There's an anti-moral, artistic tension here that I like a lot. There's no cure for the bourgeois condition, much as the New Age quacks hovering in the background of Ginny Good may claim, and no cure for its antidote. What we often see as a useful distraction or an antidote to the middle state
the sentimental love cultis a destructive snare and a delusion, just in case you didn't know, but sometimes it can be fun, if that's what you're into. This in itself isn't satisfactory as a controlling philosophy of life, but that's not what art is necessarily there for. This is what I like about West Coast writers: they're the ones who've been putting out less respectable, less self-conscious, less correct art. This is the sort of thing that will keep our literary tradition going, as opposed to the academic sort of novelists. In fact, for a while I thought the fire of literary creation had gone all the way out. In this book I think I see a coal still glowing in there somewhere."

—John Bruce, July 11, 2004

(If you want to see the ever so rare online changing of a mind, read the entries (and the comments) of July 2, 2004 and July 11, 2004 here. There are some in June too, if you get fascinated. G.)

July 1, 2004

Ginny Good
Gerard Jones

- Susan Piperato


"I'm using everyone's real name. They can all sue me. I hope they do. I could use the excitement."

So begins Ginny Good, Gerard Jones's memoir of his coming of age and experience living as a quasi hippie in the San Francisco Bay area during the 1960s and '70s...read the whole review.

May 29, 2004

Saturday May 29, 2004
The Guardian


The Bookseller

Nicholas Clee on the latest news from the world publishing industry

...I have been reading a rather wonderful memoir. Much as I like it, though, I cannot condemn the hundreds of literary agents and publishers who declined to take it on. It is called Ginny Good, and it is written by Gerard Jones, who came to my attention with his website, everyonewhosanyone.com, a listing of more than 2,000 publishers and agents in his native US and in Canada, the UK and Ireland.

He has sent them all samples of his writing; you can read some of the rejection letters at the site. However, an agent did sign him up eventually, and sold Ginny Good to a small, new US house called Monkfish. After I had used the site several times, I decided that I should click Jones's "send me money" donations button; in return, he sent me a copy of his book.

It is the story of his life in the hippy culture of the US West Coast in the 1960s and 70s, and of his relationship with Virginia Good, a volatile child of that era. It is direct, funny and touching. Getting published should have been straightforward, surely. But the problem is how to market this book. Yes, he is a gifted writer, but that is a hard quality to sell. There is also the matter of precedent. In the time I've been writing about the book trade, I've come across quite a few memoirists such as Jones, dismayed that publishers have failed to appreciate their work; none of them, before him, has had any talent. It's difficult to prove yourself the exception...

Nicholas Clee is editor of the Bookseller, which has written previously about EWA and Ginny Good here:

13 May 2004
A world record for rejections

14 August 2003
Even more everyonewhosanyone

And in the articles section, an old column entitled:
The Fine Art of Effusive Rejection

(Dear Nicholas: "It's difficult to prove yourself the exception." It is. Yes. But it's one of the few things I've found worth even trying to prove. Thanks for mentioning Ginny Good in your Guardian column. I don't know how far you've gotten in the book but here's a summary of that sentiment from page 347:

"I also liked the whole idea of hitting golf balls into the side of San Bruno Mountain. It felt like I was trying to knock the god damn mountain down. It?s hard to knock a mountain down by hitting golf balls into it. I barely budged the son of a bitch. I rarely got the balls past the 200-yard marker, but that didn?t stop me from trying to knock the god damn mountain down. It was probably therapeutic, like playing golf every day for two and a half years when I first came up to Ashland had probably been a little therapeutic, like writing this book has no doubt been therapeutic."

I'll be interested to hear what you think of the book when you've finished reading it. Thanks again. G.

May 21, 2004

Andrew Scot Bolsinger
Ashland Daily Tidings

"The truth about the '60s is jarring, but valuable"

Reader Reviews


Note: I got rid of a bunch of stupid reviews. If you wanna see what the little dickweeds had to say, go look for 'em at Amazon. G.

Note 2: Here's a review Amazon didn't stick up...don't ask me why...maybe 'cause Jeff Bezos is the dipshit of the universe. G.

Review of Ginny Good by Gerard Jones, June 27, 2010

Don't let any negative reviews, apparently written by candy-ass cretins with rose-colored contacts screwed into their eyeballs, keep you from inhaling this most excellent book.

Ginny Good is by far the best thing I've read in a long, long time. I couldn't put it down.

Few American lives are stranger, more action-packed, or wilder than the life of Gerard Jones, who lived in the San Francisco area during the Vietnam War, and the parallel scene going on over in the Haight-Ashbury district.

Uproarious and unpredictable, this oral biography chronicles in a wonderful prose style the turbulent life of Jones in all of its uncensored glory: the creative frenzies, the love affairs, the drugs and booze and fights and police arrests and ultimately, tragic suicides.

The main character, Ginny Good just happens to be the first hippy. I found it especially refreshing to recall the hippy lifestyle; eat healthy, do yoga, take care of the earth (What happened to these grand ideas? If the hippies would have stayed the course, maybe the gulf wouldn't have big blobs of oil in it right now?)

Ginny Good was bright and beautiful; much like the book cover, an ethereal flower in the blue sky. Ginny was also bat-shit crazy. Being in a room with Ginny Good was like trying to light a firecracker in your hand and calculating how fast to throw it before it blows up. Some people like playing with fire and the author obviously did. Ginny Good was also the sister of Charlie Manson girl Sandra Good. God threw that one in just for good measure.

Gerard Jones always told Ginny he'd write a book about her and he did. An awesome book, a triumph for her and the author as well. Where ever Ginny is right now, I know she is smiling. I know she is very proud of this little gem of a book.

Aww. That was sweet. Thanks! G.

Originality at its Best, March 21, 2010

If you are incapable of appreciating original thought and a playful, truly original writing style, then by all means, go hither to the library and find some NY Times bestselling author to appease your limitations. Because Ginny Good is a romp of a read, with the kind of natural comedic timing that makes you feel like you're listening to a story being told by a friend, maybe while sitting in your backyard together watching fireflies buzzing around and drinking a beer.

Though the story is set mainly in the 60s and 70s, and certainly captures some of the cultural flavor of the times, it is a life story and a love story. Ginny Good is a flawed person, as are all the characters in the book, and the author does a rare thing with his characters here - he doesn't push you to judge them, he presents them with their charm, their quirks and their failings, and lets you react as you choose ~ love them, hate them, pity them, loathe them, do what you will with them, but do it on your own terms. That kind of original authorship is priceless. Authors so often force you into siding with characters, and I often end up tossing the book within 50 or so pages because of that kind of weak, manipulative writing.

Read this book with an open mind and heart and you will enjoy it as I have, laughing and crying and wincing, remembering another era long lost, remembering youth and lost loves with that stinging pain/pleasure of nostalgia. A delightful, unique book.

An American Classic, December 20, 2009

A good friend raved about a book called GINNY GOOD, written by somebody named Gerard Jones. On his recommendation I purchased it from Amazon. I was so impressed with the writing that I went to Jones website and learned he had a hard time getting this work into print. I'm glad he kept trying, because his struggle has given us a remarkable memoir/novel. This book was so exceptional I read it all the way through and never once touched my Blackberry.

Let me advise you that there is something magical and illuminating about GINNY GOOD, but, in opposition to the luminescence there are many dark passages. The narrative voice is generous, humane, and full of humor. You have to go back quite a few years to find a book to compare it to. There's a certain tone that reminds me of Salinger, which is a purely emotional response. My opinion is hardly defensible because Salinger is an elitist who managed to appeal to a large audience, and Jones is a writer whose work was informed by such great literary populists as Henry Miller and L. F. Celine. GINNY GOOD should appeal to the reading masses, but it was put out by a small press and I don't think it was ever promoted or reviewed by important publications like the New York Times.

The creative writing teachers will tell you it's not wise to kill off two of your major characters, but Jones does it in GINNY GOOD and manages to make it work, which is indicative of his writing chops. This book has stayed with me and I believe it will appeal to a lot of people, even the people who complain about the quality of US writing.

Ginny Very Good, February 20, 2006

Reviewer: M. Heldt (Chicago)

If you order this book hoping for a trippy-hippie fairy tale, you are going to be disappointed. More than being about the 60s, Ginny Good seems to happen in spite of the 60s: "It was groovy. It was far out. It was over."

The characterization is the real meat of the story. At times brutally funny, at other times emotionally devastating, this memoir-esque novel follows the thread of three friends as they weave in and out of one another's lives. Each of them seems to be wondering, "How can I settle into a normal life after this?" They always want too much from one another, and the fallout of their entanglements is often catastrophic.

Jones strikes the tone of someone whose experience was so authentic that he does not need to sermonize or idealize it. The 60s happened like every other decade, and people happened along with it. His narration is excellent, and his direct, punchy sentences effortlessly carry the load of every emotion from bleak absurdity to childlike wonder. For anyone who has ever loved and lost or simply wondered, "How do I go on after this?" Gerard Jones shows us that time doesn't heal wounds so much as language does.

Outstanding!, July 23, 2005

Reviewer: T. Lyn "book lover" (East Tennessee)

I just finished Ginny Good, and it's one of the best books I've ever read. I'm an incorrigible bookworm - not a day goes by that I don't read - and I've read many excellent, moving books. I've read books that made me cry and books that made me laugh. I've read books that made me both cry and laugh, by turns.

But of all the books I've read, Ginny Good is the only book that had me simultaneously crying my eyeballs out and laughing my head off. Several times throughout, in fact. In a word: WOW.

I could throw out adjectives on top of adjectives to describe Ginny Good - delightful, insightful, witty, sad, thought-provoking, mind-expanding - but I'll stop there and say this in lieu of more adjectives: to say that Gerard Jones can write is to say that Claude Monet could paint.

People: read this book!!

Hey, T. Lyn, you's exactly who I was aiming at when I rote the thing. I talk about King Lear a lot, sort of subliminally throughout the book, and Shakespeare has a line in there somewhere: "His flawed heart--Alack, too weak the conflict to support--twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, burst smilingly." That's a slick emotion to have pulled off and every now and then, when I read what someone like you had to say, I get the feeling I done pulled it off. Thanks. G.

Life piling on., March 1, 2005

Reviewer: D. Breneman (New Hampshire, USA)

As a writer, I'm familiar with Gerard Jones because of his extremely helpful website, which provides names and addresses (postal and email) of literary agents, and reveals his running dialogue with hundreds of these agents who looked at his book, Ginny Good. I decided to buy his book partly out of a sense of obligation to him, partly out of curiosity, and partly as a gesture to his perseverance and sense of humor in the face of an un-ending barrage of humorless and, often, arrogant rejections. I didn't expect the book to be very good. It is good. It's very good. I've never read a book like it. (This is probably the literary agents' problem with the book, label-addicted as they are.) It's non-fiction that reads like fiction. The characters are compelling and fully drawn. Their weaknesses are exposed in the beginning, and as life piles on, with hit after hit, you're waiting for that final hit, the one that will finally crush their courage, their thirst for life. You know it's coming. You have to watch it happen. Jones's breezy writing style is deceptively good throughout, and often superb. This is not merely the definitive book about the underbelly of the sixties' love generation, it's a book with enormous heart. I'm not surprised to see that Jones has attracted a few negative reviews. He's irritated a number of people, not with his book, but with his website--where he says exactly what he thinks about everything, all the time. As I read Ginny Good I thought I could see how he got that way. It's a terrific book, one that's destined to be a classic.

Aw. My hero. Maybe now I'll be less cantankerous for a minute or two. Thanks. G.

Incisive mind at work, October 30, 2004

Reviewer: Robert Cope (Australia)

I read the reviews. All of them -- after I read the book. What I found in Ginny Good and neglected/missed in the reviews, or wrongly read as "a wandering mind, drifting narrative, acid trip, blah blah" is the work of an incisive mind. The literature alluded to, for example, from Abelard to Willow is exacting. This is a great mind at work. Don't be fooled by this author. He is precisely clever. His cleverness can be missed easily as the word by word cadense is rhythmical, a delightful read.

Dam strate; dat's what I knows too. I honestly believe that people have no clue how to even read anymore due in large part to good writing by someone who has something to say taking a total back seat to the simple-minded glitzy claptrap and pure crap some smarmy editor and some smarmy agent can get together and publicize among their smarmy book reviewer boyfriends and girlfriends enough to sell however many copies it takes to make a profit during the course of a month or two. Thanks. G.

If you stole my car and left my book inside I thank you!, October 30, 2004

Reviewer: L. E. Kepner (Spanaway, WA USA)

I procrastinated this year in buying my son's Halloween costume. He talked me into going to Party City and fighting the crowd for the best looking tough guy outfit- guns or knives had to be part of the whole look. I was dreading it- I wanted to hand him twenty bucks and send him inside the store to fend for himself. Why not? I could sit outside in my big warm honey of a car and read Ginny Good in the parking spot in front of the store. (I was at a really good part too- chapter seven I think.) Well, I pride myself on being a great mom, so I left my book on the seat and walked into the madness with my Zach. It took him seventy-three minutes to find something I could talk him into. (A pirate with a huge hat, a fake parrot on his shoulder and lots of knives hanging from a belt--don't give him too much candy if he comes to your house, I will be the one to suffer).

Anyway, it was dark when we left the store. My car was gone. Thugs had taken it. I don't know who they were, but I walked that parking lot searching for my book. I mean, my car. OK, dangit, I wanted my damn book. I have insurance, but I wanted my book! Well, I guess I had just parked it where I didn't think I had, or whoever took it returned it unharmed, and left Ginny Good right on my seat. What a relief. I adore this book. I hope Gerard Jones writes more because I will buy whatever he writes.

Oh, man, you did say "damn," and Amazon let it slide. What's this world coming to? You've got your priorities straight, anyway, kids first...cars come and go but a good book and a good kid is hard to find. Thanks. G.

A mostly true example of pure fiction, October 27, 2004

Reviewer: K. Yoder

Gerard Jones has written a book, a mostly true book. The story of the hippie culture is appealing to some and a turn off for others. But, it is the style that keeps the reader linked to Ginny Good. The story is basically about the experiences that life pulls us through. It is about reflection, humor, confusion, and strife. But, mostly, Ginny Good is about the human condition and the power of the human spirit that is at its best when displayed through humor. This is Gerard Jones first book, but I am expecting others to follow quickly. This author has much promise and expect to keep hearing his words-and if you listen, you will be pleasantly surprised.

That's a decent take on my little book but why should I fiddle with the other books I've written when nobody has read or reviewed the first one 'cause the publisher doesn't have a big publicity budget? People read only what they're told to read and they only get told to read what someone gets paid to tell them to read. Ah, Bartleby. The roots of humanity are rotting in the love of money. G.

Five Stars Easy!, October 22, 2004

Reviewer: Robert E. Levin "Author, Robert Edward Levin" (U.S.)

Whether this book is true, partially true, or a complete lie is insignificant. What is significant is that Gerard Jones is a novelist of grand measure. If you want to be entertained, and I assure you this book is entertaining despite "rarany's" recent review to the contrary, by all means pick it up. What you will read is not only a wonderful story colored by an array of wonderful characters, but the brilliance of Jones himself. Ladies and gents, the dude can flat out write. Read it. Love it. Tell your friends to read it, for they too will love it. And when you're done... read it again... the book's narrative excellence deserves it.

Gerard Jones, I tip my literary hat to you.

Oh, man, you're my hero in thousands of ways...I bet that "rarany" dickwad didn't read the thing. He or she is probably a shill for the silly, superficial, shortsighted, self-absorbed, simplistic, shit-for-brains publishing industry...the AAR and PMA more than likely chipped in to hire the twit to say stupid stuff about my beautiful book so their respective memberships wouldn't come off as quite such idiots when it comes to representing or publishing books worth reading or writing. Ha! It's gonna take more than that. Or maybe she's that chicken Michiko or that ever so clever Kipen goon from the SF Chronicle who ought to be falling all over himself about the best San Francisco book ever writ. Oh, well, those who can't write have to rag on those who can, I guess. Thanks. G.

Two times a lady., September 5, 2004

Reviewer: N. Jendrick "NJ" (USA)


I just wrote the greatest review of all time. Really. It was the best. Awesome. Utterly amazing. Then when I pushed submit I got an error on the Amazon.com page, and when I pushed back, it was gone.

It took a three week trip to Europe for me to decide I was willing to do this again. In a sense, take this as a testament to how good this book was. Worth the effort.

At first I didn't like "Ginny Good." I didn't like the book as a whole and the character annoyed me. I couldn't believe they published this P.O.S. And after thinking Gerard Jones was a bi-polar psychopath who couldn't keep a story straight and kept having to use "Oh crap, hold on..." I finally realized it was genius.

I was born in the 80's, forget the 60's and 70's. But you know? This book gave me a taste. A real feel good taste of the crap that went on back in the day. I liked it. The detail in this book is so fluid you hardly notice you're picking up every color and shape and size and forming images so vivid in your mind you start to wonder if *you* are on an acid trip. The characters, the author's friends and family, are intriguing. You wonder what they'd be doing now together if all were still breathing. During the book, you wonder what they're doing when they aren't being talked about. They're not wasted pages like most supporting cast members--they're meaningful.

The story ends how all stories end: Happy. Sad. Horrifying. Unanswered. Perfect.

And that's how this review will end.

Other people freaked out at the first several chapters, too, but you're right, it was total genius...or at least it was pretty close to exactly the way I wanted it to be. Thanks. G.

Engaging..., September 2, 2004

Reviewer: ZeldaFitz (Massachusetts, USA)

To be honest, I wasn't too sure that I would like this book. The '60s are possibly my least favorite era. (The '70s coming in as a close second, but at least I have some nice childhood memories of life before VCRs, DVDs, CDS, and other things known only by their acronyms. But I digress.) But after a few pages of Mr. Jones' engaging, breezy writing, I was completely drawn into his memoir of his days in the '60s West Coast (another culture completely foreign to me). Gerry, Ginny, Elliot, et al. are drawn with such precision and vividness (is that even a word?) that the reader feels that they, too, are part of this world. And the more I read, the more I found that the time and place of the book didn't matter -- it could have been any time, any place. The charismatic, tragic Ginny might have been Zelda Fizgerald (indeed, she says she wanted to be Zelda), she might have been Marilyn Monroe, she might have been Frances Farmer...it doesn't matter.

Ginny Good is one of the finest books I have read in recent months, on a par with perhaps Michael Chabon's portraits of Pittsburgh in Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys.

Pick it up, read it, absorb it, enjoy it.

Back to the Sixties, August 27, 2004

Reviewer: George Rabasa "George Rabasa" (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Gerard Jones shows that you can remember the Sixties even if you were there. This is a story that is astonishingly true in its lush recreation of places, flavors, sounds, and people. Going beyond the easy takes of flower power and free love, Ginny Good captures the very soul of an era. It's characters, lovingly recreated, some long dead, achieve a kind of immortality in their remembrance. In the process, the story is by turns hilarious, sad, provocative, revealing. This is an honest, brave book.

Ginny is definitely GOOD!, August 26, 2004

Reviewer: Felicia Sullivan (New York, ny United States) - See all my reviews Reviewed by Jennifer Leblanc for Small Spiral Notebook

Ginny Good is a page-turning memoir in which Gerald Jones paints a fascinating, sad story of San Francisco in the 60's.

Jones has written an ode to a real-life girl named Ginny Good, claiming he knows of proof that she was the first hippie. "There's a picture of her in the school paper at San Francisco State," Jones claims, and the first use of the word "hippie was in the caption to that picture." On New Years Eve in 1962 Jones and his friend Eliot Felton, a disturbed green beret, meet Good at a jazz club, not knowing the effect that chance meeting will have on their future, individually and together. Good is a child of divorce, a "goddamn icon," a drunk, a rape victim and someone desperate for love in the turbulent 60's, which, as Jones explains, was not a good time for anyone, never mind someone with Ginny's troubles. But Jones and Felton can't help me drawn to, loving and taking care of Ginny Good for well over a decade. Her presence disturbs their relationships, their minds, their lives but Jones writes of her so affectionately that he obviously considers her worth every last trouble.

The characters go back and forth between being thoroughly unlikable in obnoxious, hippie ways or too sad and abused by life to arouse anything but pity. These weren't just a bunch of cartoon-ish hippies with flowers in their hair. These were people with pain and love and dreams who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The 60's were mainly about avoiding responsibility- everyone openly living rent free, raising even more dysfunctional children, and hurting those around them. But Jones's description of the time, down to the smallest details, is fresh and different from any other 60's portrait out there. He notes,

...the whole hippie thing was over by 1966... It had nothing to do with the war or civil rights or free speech. All that riding around in flower power busses was the commercialization of the experience... all that was nothing but advertising by people who'd already taken acid to get other people to take acid, and by then the advertising was getting mistaken for what really went on. A few minds got blown on acid. That's it.

And speaking of acid, the sublime, mystical, breathtaking scene with Ginny in the woods on acid is worth buying this book alone. Although this is Jones's debut novel, he has a real flair for prose. Lines such as "chalk dust hovered in shafts of early morning sunlight" fill the tale with vivid images. For the writing, for the 60's, for Jones, and above all for Ginny, this book deserves to be read.

It's Gerard, actually, not Gerald. And you don't have a bio for Jennifer Leblanc. You should. She did a good job. Thanks. G.

A Work of Art, July 11, 2004

Reviewer: A reader from Lake Bluff, IL USA

It's been a long time since I picked up a book like this, one that I could not put down until it was finished and then had to read it again. Words flow, the prose so well-crafted that at times I put aside the story and just enjoyed the way the words were strung together. The tale is funny, sad and oftentimes incredible, but Ginny Good is definitely worth owning.

Hey, someone from Lake Bluff, IL likes my little book. Yippee! I think I'm gonna move there. Thanks. G.

"Blows the mind.", July 4, 2004

Reviewer: A reader from Washington, DC United States

That this book isn't getting more attention is a shame. All the garbage that's published and reviewed and here sits a gem of a book, largely ignored. I'm not going to summarize the book, you can read it yourself. I will say, however, Jones, like all great writers, has a keen insight into the human condition. He's also a great cultural critic, has a clear perspective on a period in American history. And for as self-centered he can appear at times, in the end, one is left with the impression he's twice as concerned for those around him. A subtext or theme I kept reading was Jones' sincere concern for people, the world. He gets it. "You want to change the world? Be good. Don't fight. Eat your vegetables." In his great praise to literature, Henry David Thoreau wrote, "How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book!" Time will be the final judge, but, right now, I'm adding Ginny Good to my list.

Yeah, yeah, YOU get it. Thanks. G.

Simple, Yet Elegant, July 3, 2004

Reviewer: Kelly Wittmann from Chicago

Given the the stranglehold the pretentious, incestuous McSweeney's school of thought has on "literary fiction" these days, one can only consider Gerard Jones' self-professed lack of education a blessing. Why, just imagine--a writer who actually saves outlandish metaphor for scenes in which it's appropriate (such as the first acid trip). Comparisons with Salinger and Twain are not overstated, for Jones has the rare ability to express a brilliant intellect in an accessible, dare I say folksy, manner. I suppose complaints about his women characters being "slutty" are valid, but is that Jones' fault? Who wasn't slutty back then? (Well, my mother wasn't, of course, but on with the review...) The story is certainly a poignant, bittersweet one--I confess I cried at the end--but Jones throws in enough partying and brushes with the famous and semi-famous to intermittently relieve the almost unbearable emotional tension. Though there isn't a plot per se, there's so much meat to this story, and Jones' descriptions are so vivid, that reading "Ginny Good" one almost feels it to be a cinematic experience. All in all, a bravura debut from a wonderful storyteller.

Whoa! Things are getting better all the time. Thanks, man, whoever you are. Wait. I obviously wrote this myself, right? I think I might have needed to know who the fuck this McSweeney guy is in order to have written it, though. So who's this McSweeney guy? Or is it a girl? Thanks. G.

p.s.: I was just being cute about not knowing who those McSweeney's guys are, although I really never read any of their stuff. Someone told me that Eggers book about a staggering ego was okay, though. I'd have to read it to believe it, however, and that very likely ain't gonna happen. G.

I *wasn't* just being cute about what I said about the McSweeney's Crowd. Know what you should read? A Reader's Manifesto by BR Myers. Trust me, you'd love it.

Oh, I know you weren't just being cute about those geeks; I've sent them about a billion emails, all of which were imperiously ignored. I write differently than they do. I have something to say. And you're right about their "stranglehold," but that's the kind of geek stuff the geeks who read that stuff get told is good and geeks have a penchant for doing what they're told to do. If I ever read another book again in my long, long life, I'll check out this manifesto thing. Is it anything like Books in My Life? Did you ever read Call it Sleep? He was kind of a one book wonder--except for some TNY stories later. My literary heroes are guys like Louis-Ferdinand Celine and Nabokov with a little Salinger and Flannery O'Connor and Grace Paley thrown in for voice and some Pynchon and Barth thrown in for not shying away from writing about hard stuff to write about and guys like Malamud and Singer and Bellow thrown in for making hard stuff to write easy to read and Gerard Manley Hopkins and Shakespeare and Poe for some sort of slick language. I don't have any kind of formal education, no, but that's one of my saving graces. You totally nailed all that stuff in your cool review. G.

Literary Gem, June 30, 2004

Reviewer: Laura Strachan from Annapolis, MD USA

It's a memoir. Of course it's self-absorbed. Ginny Good was a real, flesh and bones, flawed human being who had a huge impact on Mr. Jones' life (and the lives of many other people, see the Hank Harrison review below). But the book isn't about Ginny Good, except as the foundation upon which Mr. Jones has constructed an amazing literary work that is part autobiography, part social history, part comedy and part tragedy. She's the unifying element for a compelling tale that stretches from 1950's Michigan to 21st century Oregon. And she's a metaphor for the cultural sea-change that took place in this country during her too brief existence. But ultimately Ginny Good — the book — is the story of Gerard Jones' life, told with his sardonic wit and golden narrative voice...and it's anything but boring.

(I do solemnly swear that Gerard Jones and I are not the same person, and he did not write the above paragraph, although I will confess to being his agent. That may make me inherently biased, but I wouldn't have taken the book on if I didn't love it and think it would be an important contribution to contemporary literature.)

"...o my chevalier!
No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion."

—Gerard Manley Hopkins

An extraordinary book, June 30, 2004

Reviewer: anne29178 from Guernsey, Channel Islands UK

In southern Spain, near the small town of Ronda with its beautiful 18th century bullring, there's an interesting cave called La Pileta. Back in 1970, if you wanted to visit the cave, you had to stand outside it and hope that your shouts would be heard by the owner of a farmhouse about half a kilometre across the valley. If they were, he would come, light a lantern and show you the Palaeolithic drawings on the walls of the cave.

Also visiting the cave, the day I went, was a young American who was clearly a Vietnam draft-dodger. I have often wondered what he did with the life he might have lost had he been drafted to a war [1964-1975] in which more than 58,000 US soldiers were killed.

I was reminded of him while reading Gerard Jones' extraordinary book. Extraordinary because, in theory, it's the last book a publisher would expect to appeal to an English reader of my age and type whose favourite novelists are Patrick O'Brian, Nancy Mitford and Ann Bridge.

The hippie era of drink, drugs and casual sex described by GJ is as remote from my world as if we had spent our twenties on different planets. Yet, despite the frequent use of f-words, and the often exasperating behaviour of Ginny and Melanie, the book made me warm to its author as I had on discovering his amusing and, for writers, valuable website.

He comes across - and this is difficult to fake - as an exceptionally likable man who had the bad luck to fall in love with an alcoholic. Why Ginny, if she loved him, as she appears to have done, didn't seek help from Alcoholics Anonymous [founded 1935] is hard to understand.

Had she not been addicted, and had she supported GJ's gift for writing which clearly she recognised early on, he might have been published long ago. This is a sad, funny, moving but, ultimately, frustrating book which leaves the reader hoping for a more positive sequel.

As the British author Mary Wesley proved by becoming a bestseller in her seventies, Gerard Jones has ample time to become a star author; and clearly he has that essential quality - persistence in the face of numerous rejections.

Anne Weale a k a The Bookseller's Bookworm on the Net

Hey, Anne, that's sweet. Every little turn you take your whole life through is one you could just as easily not have taken and everything would have been utterly different, but it wasn't, it was the way it was, you took the turns you took, like the kid visiting the cave that day. And, yeah, there were 58,000 Americans senselessly killed but let us not forget the 2,000,000 relatively defenseless Vietnamese easily equally senselessly killed. Thanks. G.


Reviewer: A reader from Vista, California

This is a terrific journey through the 60s in the Bay Area and it offers a rare glimpse of the underbelly of the Hippie Scene. The writing is fresh and honest. The narrator is as likable as Holden Caulfield. Jones gets to the heart of what it means to love someone bent on self-destruction.

This ain't a beach read!, June 5, 2004

Reviewer: Gerald L. Dodge from Annandale, New Jersey

Gerard Jones has written a troubling, funny, sad, and self-absorbed novel. This is a novel about real people growing up in the sixties when the old rules—that seemed so clear and distinct—are being blurred by a new social consciousness driven by an unpopular war, and fomented by a generation of kids looking to separate themselves from the generation who raised them with an almost cavalier sense of always being right and virtuous. The result are the characters who parade through the pages of this very important book.

Jones has written an extremely honest book and sometimes reading it, when naked honesty is at the heart of discourse, has the result of discomfort and even embarrassment. We are reminded of how self-absorbed we all were, and it really should be an imperative that all people over the age of forty read this book. We need to be reminded of who we were and why we do what we do now, including making excuses and protecting the generation we are attempting to raise into adulthood. Many of us have become conservative and isolated from new ideas because we failed—as a collective social construct—at what we wanted to accomplish as young adults. This is evident in Gerard Jones's book, and the despair and emptiness that sometimes these characters reveal is so powerful the feelings are almost palpable.

I was not reminded of any other book when I put this book down, and so I can only come to one conclusion: this is a great and new kind of literature!

Hey, you writ GG up a review at Amazon. Yippee! I wasn't reminded of any other book when I wrote the thing, either. Well, Celine a little, maybe, here and there. But I just basically sat down and told the effing story as it occurred to me to tell it. I kept forgetting stuff. Then I told it again as it occurred to me more correctly. When in doubt, tell the truth seemed to do the trick. And after eight or twelve years of doing that I had enough done to be able to spend another seven years rewriting it to my heart's content...and a year or so editing it after that. Thanks for your thoughtful words. They seem true enough to me. G.

Solid Book, June 2, 2004

Reviewer: chieditor from Chicago, IL

A friend recommended this book to me. And I was pulled along into finishing it by the quality of writing. As an editor of a newspaper. It is hard for me to read novels anymore. I correct mistakes so much at work, it only adds to my job frustration to read them in novels, ironically, usually those novels are bestselling and recommended by John Updike.

Unlike most memoirs where the words, seemed stilted towards maudlin reminiscing, this memoir holds objectivity throughout without the usual cynicism.

Hey, man, I'll take "Solid Book" from a hardnosed Chicago newspaper editor any day. Thanks. G.

At last - a real writer gets published, May 30, 2004

Reviewer: sean wright from King's Lynn, England

Gerard Jones' debut Ginny Good is way more than good - it's great. No, let's not be bashful. It's awesome! Why?

Because its voice really is unique in literature today. With so much formula copy-cat stuff about it's great to read a book that actually means something. To the author, and to me. It's heart-felt, real, and incredibly funny.

If I could give ten freaking stars on amazon I would have no hesitation! Hell, why stop there? Why not twenty! Well done Mr Jones. I hope Ginny Good becomes an international bestseller. Gritty, no bull writing deserves to be read by as wide a readership as possible. Thank you.

(Hey, sean, twenty stars? That's it? Sheesh. Did you see this Guardian thing?


GG still doesn't have a single bona fide book review from a single bona fide book reviewer anywhere in the US 'cause they're all too busy reviewing the latest twit-lit tearjerker about how some chick barfed herself out on too many Oreo cookies and even the Nicholas Clee thing wasn't a review, although he's at least read some of the book. Oh, well. "...Jesus himself testified that a prophet in his own country shall not have honour." I'm thinking about moving to Botswana. Thanks, man. Glad you liked it. G.)

May 25, 2004

(Here's my favorite book review so far, well, next to the one Michiko Kakutani hasn't done yet, of course:)

Hey Gerard, finished Ginny Good today. I put up the promised Amazon review a few minutes ago; it's copied below, just for your edification. I was willing to say it sucked if it sucked. Unfortunately, I absolutely *loved* it. I'm never going to read a memoir again. I'd rather believe stuff that tears at you like that is fictional. Crap... it made "Angela's Ashes" look like a Harlequin Romance. I'm Mormon, by the way. Got a kick out of the surprisingly big Mormon presence in the book, the whole Joseph Smith story and all that. Thanks for spreading the gospel in your own special way... HA!

Heartbreaking and true..., May 24, 2004

Reviewer: A reader from Washington, D.C. USA

I stumbled across Ginny Good while ransacking the author's web site about the publishing business. It piqued my curiousity; the excerpt he had up there was good; so I thought, what the heck, and got myself a copy. The first two or three pages, I tolerated. The next ten, I entertained. The following 340 pages I read with such hypnotic absorption that at one point, when my husband came home and I had to set it down to run over and pick up some Chinese take-out, I was pretty determinedly pissed off about it. I *had* to find out what the heck was going to happen with Melanie.

The book itself? It's a memoir, and thus lacks the "plot agenda" of a work of fiction, which turns out to be wonderful. "Ginny Good" is utterly unpredictable, messy, heartbreaking, candid, sexy, angry... breathtakingly real. The characters are vividly alive. The emotions, as Gerard Jones expresses them, are painfully, piercingly on target. The first acid trip scene is a freakin' *riot*. Also, from a cultural point of view, it's genuinely interesting. The way the events of the culture and the world are woven into the story is terrific; it reminded me of "Couples" by John Updike in that way. It runs slow at times, and at times you think Gerard Jones is a self-centered jerk... and as a woman reading it, I wondered if the "mostly true" caveat in the subhead refers to the sexual appetites of every woman in the daggone book. But they're minor points. The book is full of gorgeous, insightful little gems of imagery that I wanted to color with a highlighter. And the ending just *soars*... sublimely perfect. I can see that my copy is going to get all cruddy with thumbprints and soda can circles from sitting on my night table.

I've got three kids, and it's been a long time since I had the time, energy, or room within me to let a book suck me in the way this one did. When I got my copy of "Lolita," years ago, the cover quote was, "The only convincing love story of our century." That was the 20th century, however, and as far as that quote goes, the torch ought to be passed to "Ginny Good."

(Holy shit, is that the best review I ever did see or what? Man, oh man. Wow. Man, like, wow. That's beatnik talk. The whole reason I wrote the book or have ever written anything I've ever written in my life is half to be able to sit down and read a decent book for a change and half to get it read by one of the few people who appreciate a decent book when they read it—there are three of you. I hope the other two find GG pretty soon, too. Thanks. G.)

Real Real Truth, May 18, 2004

Reviewer: asking@eircom.net from Co. Tipperary, Republic of Ireland

Gerard Jones has finally told the truth about life in the early sixties. After years of novels and memoirs that made it all seem like a fantastic ride that no person should have missed, Ginny Good puts things into better perspective. Never boring, never long winded, Mr. Jones has given us a picture of the real life roller coaster of the 1960's, the Vietnam war era and the effect of drug culture on the people who often get trapped inside it. Ginny Good is a bittersweet love story set in the times where free love often won versus true love. Applause for the real truth being told, after decades of fairy tales and wanna be remembrances. Gerard Jones deserves more attention in a world too quick to make fiction a reality. His voice is stunningly honest and wise—a relief in these times when one can barely believe the daily news on television.

Like Seinfeld, only better, May 13, 2004

Reviewer: berkeley_reader (see more about me) from Berkeley, CA

Excellent writing and larger than life characters, who do nothing and everything at the same time, and make things like toenail polish and Coty perfume seem beautiful and compelling. If you're from around the Bay Area, you'll recognize the people and places Jones writes about, in your friends, your co-workers and yourself. If you're not from around the Bay Area, you'll wish you were.

Real life as farce, May 10, 2004

Reviewer: vaudeguy (see more about me) from Dover, NJ

Gerard Jones newest book is not just a reading, it is a rollercoaster ride through the unabashed Id of the author. Jones is unashamed to let it all "hang out" as he tells the story of Ginny, and the highs and low of the "Flower Child" generation. His remarkable point of view jumps in a free-assocation way that is remeniscent of James Joyce's "ULYSSES". Unlike Joyce, Jones' savage wit and unforgiving sense of the absurd makes the book humorous one minute and devasting the next.

(Hey, that's a reasonable review. I like it. The book definitely do always seem to go from the ridiculous to the sublime and back again without much say so from the guy what wrote it, I agree. Humorous and devastating, yes, but doesn't life just sort of do that? Like, you know, in general? Thanks. G.)

A powerful memoir and a microhistory, May 8, 2004

Reviewer: S. R., MD from Boston, Massachusetts

Underneath the fascinating and often funny glimpse into Mr. Jones life, is something more than just his engaging voice and the description of the Flower Children of the Sixties.

It is a story of addiction. The story of Ginny's struggle with substance abuse in an age when it was poorly understood not only by physicians but by society.

Drug abuse and addiction in this country became mainstream in the Sixties and here we see the seeds of its origin.

The cast of characters is replete with all those who abuse, manipulate, mistreat and misunderstand addicts and addiction, including the authorities.

More gripping to me as a physician was the look at those who love a victim of addiction and cope with this devastating illness. Here you will find the earnest struggle to help and the wrenching, painful awareness of its futility. This is told with all the puzzled, helpless love that Ginny commanded from her friends.

Overcoming codependency is still the most difficult and rare feat of anybody involved with an addict who rejects treatment. Love is not enough sometimes. Mr. Jones accomplished this without any signposts or support groups. Seeing the process of this enlightenment is a lesson for all of us. No matter what the addiction.

This should be a primer for the NA, AA, Alanon and licensed chemical dependency treaters of any degree. Not only does it add plenty of new insight into the dynamics of this raging epidemic but thanks to the superb style in which Mr. Jones conveys this struggle, it was a lot more fun to gain an increased understanding of his path to wellness.

(That was what this book was about? Who knew? I guess I had to have been a little stupid, too; I honestly had no idea I was doing all the fancy things you saw me doing. The guy did draw the line at some point, yeah, but he had to get to that line before he knew where it was. With heroin addiction it was an easier line to see, but even heroin addiction had mitigating circumstances. Which would he rather Melanie have been? Dead or strung out on heroin for four years? There weren't a lot of black and white courses of action. That created conflicts. They resolved themselves the way they resolved themselves as such things are wont to do. I just got a note from Melanie. She loves the book so far but she hadn't gotten to the parts about her yet. I'd have a hard time being a chemical dependency treater of any degree. I just pretty much don't like drunks. That was one of the lessons I learned, I guess. Other people do. That's their business. I don't. The only edifying or instructive thing I have to say is you do what you do and I'll do what I do. You have to live with you, I have to live with me. Thanks. G.)

Funny, forgiving, a wild ride, May 2, 2004

Reviewer: dankni6 from Los Angeles

Every once in a while you read a book that makes an indelible impression, that makes you to share it with all your friends. Ginny Good is like that. I loved it. Its a chronicle of the narrator's young life during the 1960's and '70s. It reminded me a little of Forest Gump, the way all the random, crazy things kept happening to him and his friends. I'm young, so I wasn't alive in the 60's, but I got a real good feeling of what it must have been like and I wish I had been there.

(Hey, I wish you'd been there, too, but you'd be really old by now. G.)

Ginny GREAT, April 21, 2004

Reviewer: A reader from Jericho, NY USA

I don't swoon easily. This book made me swoon.

It's a sort of sweeping epic about the 1960s, but please-oh-please don't think "Forrest Gump." Not that it was a bad movie; it had its own quirky appeal, presenting the swirling, tumultuous, revolutionary era from the removed viewpoint of a simpleton. This book does the opposite. It's the UN-Forrest Gump. It looks at the world of that era from the inside out, going deep inside characters who are as smart and intense and flawed and insane and real as any characters you have ever met. You will fall in love.

And oh-may I continue swooning?-the writing is as straightforward as Raymond Carver's and as honest as J.D. Salinger's. It may be the most unpretentious thing you will ever read.

Did I mention that it's funny, too? It truly is.

At its heart, Ginny Good is about love and friendship. And insanity and heartbreak. And sex and drugs and spiritual yearnings. Stop me. Just go read it already.

(Aw. I'm swooning over your swooning. What a sweetie. It's up at B&N, too. Good job, man. Thanks. G.)

Ginny was my Lover and my Shrink, April 18, 2004

Reviewer: Hank Harrison from San Francisco

Not only did I know her, I loved her, deeply, hypnotically. I met her family, hung out with her Father George and her half sister and her not so whole sister Sandra. I am mentioned in the book, I knew the book was coming out, and if Gerard could just find something other than himself to write about he'd be a fabulous writer, because, in spite of his seeming bitterness, he has a heart, a big one, almost as big as Ginny's, which could of course be dangerous.

Ginny Good is a great name for the book because this woman was, although petite in apearence, bigger than life. Anyone who knew her knew she was a big deal on a small planet. I disagree she was hardly the first Hippy, but she was, without doubt, the quintessential bohemian princess. Get the book and capture the feeling of how things realy were in the Summer of Love. HH

(Hey, Hank, glad you liked it. Not to undermine your recommendation but "The Summer of Love" is dismissed in a paragraph: "Then it was the summer of 1967, The Summer of Love. Scott McKenzie sang his dork song about how everybody ought to go to San Francisco and wear some fucking flowers in their hair. It was far out. It was groovy. It was over. Then it was early October of 1967. The Fall of Love. Ha!"

I devote twenty pages or so to a day in October of 1967, yeah, but what comes before and after it is what the other 337 pages in the book are about. Ginny was all the things you said she was and more, but it was the student newspaper, The Gater, at SF State in 1963, that called her "the first hippie." Oh, and I write about all kinds of stuff besides myself. I'm the most self-effacing person I've ever written anything about...well, except maybe for Ginny's dad. Thanks. G.

PS: For people who don't know who Hank Harrison is, he's a heavy-duty guy who was in on all that Haight-Ashbury stuff from before the beginning.)

Ginny Good, very very good April 11, 2004

Reviewer: csvec3 (see more about me) from Raleigh, NC

I was pulled into this book as if by sneaky undertow. "I'll just read a few pages," I said to myself, and before I knew it, I was on page 100. The book ended before I wanted it to.

I wish I could spend more time in Gerard Jones's head. He has lived a fascinating, freewheeling life that he describes so vividly that he made me alternately love him, hate him, envy him, pity him, but eventually respect and admire him. Gerard (the style of his book makes me think that he would loathe being called Mr. Jones) met and loved Ginny Good--the documented first hippie. Gerry (I'm getting more informal here) seems to have been a sometimes hippie himself, and he chronicles the 60s by exquisite, intimate slices of his own life. His story becomes both mirror to reflect and pool to dive into.

This is not a straight-line narrative by any means. It is Gerry's tangled memories, bolstered by actual diary entries and letters he saved for 40 years. It is an acid trip of a book, and it contains one of the most magical descriptions of an actual acid trip I've ever read. Buy this book; you'll be supporting a real artist.

"Ginny Good" - highly recommended, April 9, 2004

Reviewer: Kathleen McCall from California

If you were in or around San Francisco in the sixties and seventies - or if wish you had been - this is the book to read. Jones' easy, meandering style takes us through his on-again, off-again relationship with "the first hippie" - Ginny Good - and all the love triangles, rectangles, and arcs that relationships create. It's a great story, and set beautifully against a background of the music and morality of that era. Gerard Jones' prose is engaging and makes Ginny a captivating read all the way through. There's some heartbreak, but mostly a lot of wonderful humanity in "Ginny Good." It's a book you'll be very glad you read.

Barnes & Noble

LNR, A reviewer, April 2, 2004

Did Billie Jean and I read the same book?

This is a compelling story, clearly rendered. The style of language fits the voice of the narrator to a T. I found him to be quite a charming character, and he got under my skin in the same way that Holden Caulfield did when I read The Catcher in the Rye so many years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and found it impossible to put down once I started it. Get ready for an entertaining ride and (if you lived the sixties) some serious nostalgia tripping.

Amazon (UK)

Brilliant, funny, heart-breaking Ginny Good!, May 31, 2004

Reviewer: sean10879 from King's Lynn, Norfolk


Because its voice really is unique in literature today. With so much formula copy-cat stuff about it's great to read a book that actually means something. To the author, and to me. It's heart-felt, real, and incredibly funny. From the books wonderful opening lines ... 'I'm using everyone's real name. They can all sue me.' To the bizarre 'bird' incident in the final few pages, this book sings sweeter than a sky full of nightingales. Mr Jones' prose are tight, considered, and memorable. His characters are vividly portrayed. His experience and understanding of the sixties and seventies means he can create realistic settings. Details, moods, insights. They are all there. You can taste California. Feel those heady times in your bones. Yet Mr Jones' own powerful voice is never far away. His humour is razor-sharp.


(Hey, my first Brit review! Yippee! G.)

A short message...., 31 Oct 2007

By Aj Keogh

I won't spend too long on Ginny Good except to say that it is a hidden gem and in any fair world would have been top of the bestseller lists for a very long time. Just do yourself a favour and go buy it...

Ha! (read the book to see the significance of this)

Book Reports

October 5, 2004

Hey Gerard, I was thinking about you the other day. My sister-in-law, who I lent your book to, mentioned it. In any case, we both loved the book. Searing honesty, very funny, better than 99% of the tripe out there! Hey, I finished reading the book way back in July while I was cycling through Normandy, France. I did a lot of filming, and while my wife and I were watching tape from the trip, there is cool moment where I am reading the book over the English Channel on my way to Paris and I turned to the camera and said, "Hey, Gerard, I am reading your book and enjoying very much. I think Ginny would have liked that -- you know, over Europe, people on the flights are checking out the cover! Anyway, hope all is well.

That's exactly why I rote the sucker, so people on flights over Europe could check out the cover. Some other guy told me about reading it on a flight to Berlin from London and a really cool Russian chick read it on a train from Kyiv to St. Petersberg. Warms the cockles of my weary old heart. The NY Times Book Review did a little blurb last Sunday about my website and I got a bunch more "hits" (whatever that means), but still not many people have read the book. You're among a very select few. Thanks.

September 22, 2004

Hey, I read it. Bravo! It's great, or better yet, Good. Just the right kind of twisted sweet smartness. Made me wistful even though for gods sakes I was born in 68. I'm giving it to my friend who is Finnish and grumpy. I think it will cheer her up. I can't believe you already have a great grand kid. Insane

Well, that g-gfather thing is tricky. I got together with the kid whose kid's kid caused it when she was already four--she's Wendy in the book, Melanie's daughter, who had Melissa who had Jayde who made me at least a common-law step great-grandfather...but you see what I mean about tricky? Melissa sent me some pictures. The kid is goofy-looking. I like goofy-looking kids. Yeah, yeah, give it to the grumpy Finn, then go write me up a review at Amazon. No one's done that for awhile. I'm trying to sell it to the movies now so I'm in the process of pissing off Hollywood. Thanks. G.

August 23, 2004

Manohmanohmanohmanohman!!!! What an amazing book!! What an absolutely fucking amazing book!!

There is a lake up near Anaconda Montana, Silver Lake, that the locals won't fish or boat or water-ski or do any of that stuff on because they say nobody knows for sure how deep it is. Not only that, but the water is unusually cold and clear...fall in and you die of hypothermia or drown before your fishing buddies even notice you're missing, So I'm standing on the shore of Sliver Lake, and it's a nice little lake, with the mountains and the lodge-pole pines reflected on the surface, and I can see the roundish brown pebbles under the first few feet of water, and the sunlight is dancing and reflecting and refracting off its surface and it's a beautiful hot day in August by the side of a pretty lake. And all of a sudden, I can see down into the water, and down, and down...and it begins to dawn on me that the local beer-drinking sportsmen are right: there's no bottom to the thing. As a matter of fact, it may go on forever, it may have distant galaxies and nebulae in it, great empty spaces of such profound loneliness and grief that of course you would freeze to death before you even swam a stroke. And then, just as suddenly, I'm looking at the surface of the lake again, where a handful of mallards are bobbing companionably about, and it's a hot day in August with a little breeze in the tops of the pines, and my whole life has led me to this place.

That's one thing reading Ginny Good was like. You are, well, you are the real thing. Your book is the real thing. Absolutely beautiful writing. Damned near perfect. Maybe even flawless. Yow. Thank you.

Wait. Did you read the book or just look at the pictures? G.

July 23, 2004

Dear Gerard, I liked Ginny Good. It took literally months to reach me—I was beginning to wonder if there was some kind of scam, but now I prefer to blame out dear pals at Homeland Security—anyway, I sat down and read it last weekend and it was worth the wait. Seems to me there's definitely a Henry Miller flavor here (despite your dead-Kennedy disclaimer!) The good side of Miller, I hasten to add. I'll order some more copies on Amazon for friends, and try to goose your numbers a little. And count me in for what's next. Good luck to you.

Best, Charles Holdefer

P. S. Enclosed is a copy of some of my own doings


Apology for Big Rod: Or the Defiler

Hey, Charles, don't blame Homeland Security, the delay was entirely my fault. The first batch of books I sent out I sent book rate and by boat to Europe. It just takes that long to get there. I don't read books anymore but my mommy's reading your book (since I won't let her read mine). Thanks. G.

June 28, 2004

"Dear Gerard, My signed copy of Ginny Good arrived the other week. I got home early evening to have my 17 year old announce 'you've got a package from America'. It's not easy to arouse the curiosity of a 17 year old. Your package managed it. The note with your signature was really nice. I've been showing it off.

As for the book itself? It's bloody brilliant. It's funny, sad, painfully honest. It's the best thing I've read in a very long time. I find it deeply depressing that it was such a battle to get something that good published. It screams 'publish me, you morons!' At least you got there in the end. I see that it is available on Amazon UK, although presumably not otherwise over here (yet!).

Hey, I got a little mention by Thomas Jones in the London Review of Books. There's a link on my site. It's just gonna be slow-going until the book starts getting some actual book reviews by people who know how to read. Thanks. G.

May 17, 2004

Well Gerard, I've closed the book, rolled myself a tasty cigarette and sat down here to write to you about Ginny Good. Back during the days I should have been going to college but really I withdrew and lied to my father and told him I was waitressing at the Holiday Inn, I read those books. Kesey, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Leary gave me the willies, anyway. It all seemed sad. It didn't seem real. Through the years I've had friends who've gone to San Francisco, and have seen the young people still there, strung out looking lost. They tell me it's depressing. I've never once had a want to go to California. Fact is, when I think about those days that you wrote about, the days that shaped our days—I see them the way you wrote them—the way I just read them. Realistic, sad, weird, and exciting and new all at once. Not all that fun fun fun shit everyone seems to think they were. I guess that was the way I thought they were when I first discovered stuff too, but since, I figure they were exactly like you wrote them. Just days, like any other days.

This isn't supposed to be my life fricking story, I just wanted you to know who I was a little, so you'd know maybe why I liked it so much. I liked it so much because it was real. I want you to know that your story really moved me. It moved me because of a bunch of things. Because of how you described your characters, Ginny most of all, was so well written...and such a hard character to write. Because I remembered the names of your golfing buddies—and my memory is crap. The bits about your father & your childhood were really great. Oh I'm crap at this. I can't give you a book report. I can't give you a review. I thought the book was fantastic. Terrific. Luscious. I couldn't put it down once I picked it up. It never lost momentum, it never got boring. You wrote a great book. The thing I liked the most most most? I liked your voice. If you were telling all lies, I'd have believed them. Ginny Good to me, was 100% honest, and even if it wasn't, it sure read like it was because of your voice. When I first read your letters on the website, I thought—Man, this guy has balls and says exactly what he's thinking. I should do that. What do I have to lose? 10 years, 7 novels, hundreds of rejections—why not?

After reading GG, I say—I have learned from you and your voice to be as honest as I can be. Vonnegut once said a writer should sound like they sound when they talk. You have done that to perfection. I don't even know you and I can say you've done that to perfection. What else can I say? Thanks, I guess. It was great to be in your world for a while. I'm glad you told the story and I think my world is better because I read it. Gerard a standing ovation to you, and not just for the book. You know and I know that books get written all the time. Applaud for your publication, your agent, your guts, your website and the ideas that fuelled it, your vision. You had a great go at it and it's good to see for once that a good book got published. I'll treasure my signed copy for life!

Hope I didn't say too much or too little.

(Hey, while you're still living in Ireland, go into a library there and tell 'em I want GG to win one of them Dublin IMPAC Literary Awards:


They'll pay way more attention to an Irish lass living in Tipperary than they ever would to me. It's a big amount of money and you can totally have at least half of it since I'll be getting big bucks from social security by then. Thanks. G.)

May 14, 2004

I have to say that GINNY GOOD is just one of the best books I've ever read. Un-put-downable. I'm not finished yet, (kind of want it never to end), but had to tell you how much I am enjoying the read. I have never read anything that really articulates that time so vividly. Tripping has always been impossible for fiction writers to get down, yet you do it splendidly. And frankly, I think the writing transcends the times you write about. It is simply a great read. Perhaps it was hard to sell because it straddles the labels fiction/memoir. From a former hippie chick (albeit a bit younger), thanks for giving me such reading pleasure.

May 14, 2004

Gerard - As anticipated, Ginny flew with me to Berlin where she stayed a couple of days; then she drove with me to Hanover and up to Cuxhaven. We had a good trip back on the ferry to Harwich, east England. It's a fantastic book; truly un-putdownable (if you'll forgive the cliché). You write with such feeling (another cliché, perhaps explaining why I remain unpublished). Bathos and pathos accompany the reader, taking the emotions and shaking them to shreds at times. I love your descriptive power - take page 99: "All the other things I didn't have rippled the surface of my fragile confidence like someone had thrown a pretty good-sized boulder into it." I see you are twelve years older than me; nevertheless for our generation, those born c. 1940 - 1955 (yes, I well remember where I was when Kennedy was shot), I would have thought Ginny should be a 'must buy' book - a mandatory purchase. So, I hope sales go well and that you can retire on the profit to play more golf and indulge your grandchildren (what are their names :-) ).

(Melissa, Amber, Caitlyn and...wait, what's that other one's name again? Rachel! I do remember them usually. Melissa's gonna have a baby in July, so I'm gonna be a great-grandfather. I know that will endear me even more to all the young chicks who keep trying to pick up on me. All I want to do is play golf in peace and chicks just won't let me. I have taken to carrying a nine-iron around with me, partly to practice my golf swing and partly to beat off chicks. I'm glad you liked the book--bathos and pathos in Berlin no less, yikes. I like it. Thanks. G.)

May 12, 2004

Hey G - I read and read last night - I love Ginny Good. Your writing is my kind of reading, man. Excellent. I should let you know that my husband and I figure we were the last hippies, and enjoyed a great 15 years of hippidom until it finally passed into a new sort of scene where we just seemed like long haired large pupiled dorks in the midst of cool people who prefer to dance and drop exctasy. So here's one for ya - I flunked governement too - and didn't graduate because of it - and my teacher was named Mrs. Robertson and she liked to pick her nose, wipe her boogers on her lip, then lick her lip. You made me remember her, so I figured I'd share it with you. Summer school was a blast...I got my diploma in the end, though, and boy did it get me far!!! Anyway - great book. I look forward to continuing my reading later tonight...ps - I didn't mind one bit that you sent the book boat mail - us poor writers got to be patient and cheap!

(Well if I hadn't sent it by boat I might have gotten more reviews by now. People only read what they get told to read. That's starting to piss me off. You have to be really smart to flunk government. I took a whole nother semester of high school. That was stupid, but I did it so that makes it smart. Man, do I have things figured out or what? G.)

April 22, 2004

Dear Gerard, I ditched work to read your book today. I broke my moratorium on fiction in your honor, being on strike until somebody reads my fiction. GINNY GOOD came promptly and I stared at it and carried it around and dithered with temptation for a week. Screw high-minded principles. Today was the day. Besides, I know how it feels to fret about the fate of such a personal labor.

I read it in three hours flat. I sucked it down with my coffee, inhaled it with the April breeze off the Atlantic, absorbed the words through my eyes and hands, with no music in the background to interfere with the music playing before me. And what a song it was, Gerard. A sad-but-funny, wistful-but-wise-ass, touching tune. Ginny would have loved it.

What a song. Sing me another one, please. Susan (Number one fan, not related to you)

Hey, Susan, I'm glad today was the day. But it's not fiction. The Library of Congress says it's narrative nonfiction. Who am I to disagree? That's a problem. I'd have to live another forty years, and living another forty years is way too much trouble. Glad you liked it. Here's a bunch more but they're no fun reading on a computer. No breeze. Sheesh.


Oh, and here's a brand new press release:


Thanks. G.

April 19, 2004

(From my cousin Ruthie who bought the book at a Borders in Michigan.)

G. I'm rarely at a loss for words? I'm pretty good at describing feelings...But not this time.? I'm not sure how to begin...I generally don't start a book I know I'll be "hooked on", unless I have enough time to read at my leisure.? So, when I started "G.G." I felt confident I could get the Spring yard work done.? The endless weekend errands finished...The Laundry and cleaning done...Maybe even start the de-junking of the garage....(It is my wish to be a neat-nick, but alas, the gene is not a part of me)... And still enjoy grabbing a few minutes here and there, especially to relax at bed time, to read your book.?

What I did manage to accomplish this weekend is, read through page 357, plus the inside and back cover, of Ginny Good. I laughed, I cried, I puzzled, I reminisced, I pondered, I ached for You & Ginny & the others as you worked through the joy and sadness of life. I wept through your Father's final struggle, and yet laughed when I could hear his voice.. His voice always made me laugh. "What do you call a boom-a-rang that doesn't come back????? A STICK!!!" My children only met him two or three times and still quote him.

I was not shocked nor offended...I was so engrossed I had to bargain with myself, mow a third of the yard, read for 30 minutes, change the wash (and fold and put it away), read 30 minutes. Sometimes you were Gerry, my cousin, but it was best when you were Gerry, the author and character in the book. A new and very different experience.

You should be proud, I am proud for you. I love your style. Your occasional terseness. The almost clipped speech. The humor that just slides in. The emotions: I felt them, I didn't just read them. I liked it, I really really liked it...Well, that's enough kudos for now. I just wanted to let you know how hard it was to put down and how compelling it was to me. Send me some McDonald coupons....Ruthless

Hey, man, that's the best book report I ever read. McDonald's didn't hire me, those rats. They said I didn't fit in. Hey, totally send what you said to the Royal Oak Tribune and to the Borders you got the book at and to Barnes & Noble and the Free Press and the Detroit News (if they still have such a thing). And go stick it in as a review at Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other online places that let you put up book reviews. You can find a bunch of them here:


We gotta get this thing to sell a bunch of copies so I can get rich and pay for everybody to go to one of them family reunions we all used to go to on Upper Straits Lake. Remember that spooky house built of stones that was always all locked up? The people who owned it were all ghosts, but before that the guy had a seaplane. That was how he went to work and came back home at night. Some nights he didn't come back home at all. I think his wife got pissed and offed him and herself and all their kids. That's why they're all ghosts now. I just made that all up, but I wanna buy that house and get me a seaplane and have at least one more family reunion. That would be a pretty big family reunion by now. Plus I wanna find Gus. Thanks. G.

April 11, 2004

Hey, G! OK, so I finished Ginny Good yesterday, and was waiting for my head to stop buzzing before I wrote to you. It hasn't happened yet, but I've grown used to it. This really is a wonderful book. I alternately loved you, hated you, pitied you, and envied you. Arousal of emotion is, for me, the ultimate test of how readable a book is. If I can't feel it, it means nothing. I felt something on nearly every page. I absolutely ate up your descriptions of pre-popular hippiedom of the early 1960s, and your acid revelations. I wanted to stop time in the Garden of Eden, and to adopt all of Susie's puppies. The only time I wanted to slap you—the writer you—was after your first date with Ginny when you took time out to describe the bird guy and your interim slice of life. It took me so many pages to meet Ginny that I didn't want you to move away from that story line so quickly. I hope it sells a bazillion copies. See ya-

(Oh, man, I liked the bird guy. He set the time and place and attitude, plus I have a penchant for going off on tangents. Like what the hell was that grave digger doing in Hamlet? The bird guy was like that. Ha! I just made that up. I also got to show how erudite I am by talking about Henry Miller and Burroughs and Beckett and Celine and Blaise Cendrars. The bird guy was integral. It was a foreshadowing of the death of the narrator's dad...we didn't want to miss out on one of the subtleties of that subtext, did we? Besides it was only six pages out of a 357 page book. Sheesh. Susie's puppies were the best. That was true happiness but true happiness usually only happens in hindsight. I'm glad you liked it. You're one of the few people who've actually read the thing. A bazillion copies, pfssh. It's #1,665,234 on Amazon's best seller list. Go write it up in a little blurb over there. Tell people they're idiots if they don't read it. Thanks. G.)

Done. (Except for the idiots part, but I did tell them to buy the book.) Look for it in the next day or two.


Gerard Jones


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Gerard Jones
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