A Decade in the Life of Dr Zorro A Seventies Saga PJ Killeen 9780997937701 Books
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For over 30 years, my patient wife has been a captive audience as I relentlessly brought up my past adventures and misdeeds under the pretense and alias of “Dr. Zorro.” For all those years, she pleaded with me to chronicle my stories—if not for posterity, then at least to leave a dubious legacy for our grandchildren and anyone else who may take a passing interest.
A Decade in the Life of Dr Zorro A Seventies Saga PJ Killeen 9780997937701 Books
What an amazing wild ride! This was a fun read that takes you right into the time period. Lot's of crazy stories and adventures. This would make an excellent film, hope to see it in theaters one day.Product details
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Tags : A Decade in the Life of Dr. Zorro: A Seventies Saga [PJ Killeen] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. For over 30 years, my patient wife has been a captive audience as I relentlessly brought up my past adventures and misdeeds under the pretense and alias of “Dr. Zorro.” For all those years,PJ Killeen,A Decade in the Life of Dr. Zorro: A Seventies Saga,PJ Killeen,099793770X,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs
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A Decade in the Life of Dr Zorro A Seventies Saga PJ Killeen 9780997937701 Books Reviews
This memoir is non-stop entertainment from start to finish. From the moment I started reading, I was enthralled and couldn't put it down. I couldn't believe that the events in this book were all true, this should definitely be made into a movie! A highly recommended read!
A Decade in the Life of Dr. Zorro gives the reader a virtual tour through a brief, matchless era of innocent licentiousness, when, for a seemingly carefree segment of humanity living on the edge of society, pleasure and self-indulgence far out-prioritized personal ambition and security. Written with a welcoming and never-flagging exuberance, the one-day-at-a-time hippie lifestyle is chronicled with crystal-clear recollection — maybe even too vivid detail to be entirely believed (as they say, “If you remember the sixties, you weren’t there.”)
For those who weren’t there, or who were and for whatever reason chose to eschew total immersion into sex, drugs, and anti-materialism, PJ Killeen’s memoire offers a fascinating, even titillating portrait of the late-60s-early-70s counter culture. I, however, was there, and also lived to tell. So, for me, Killeen’s anecdotes about getting high, getting laid, seeking shelter, meeting kindred spirits, and mindlessly putting life, limb, and liberty at risk become repetitive and predictable. So, unfortunately, as spirited as this story is, the book as a whole lacks a through line to keep the reader engaged. Although the tale treks from California to and through Europe, Northern Africa, New York, Canada, and finally Mexico, it really goes nowhere. It amounts to another version of the same anecdote repeated chapter after chapter, regardless of the changing location, scenery, and characters.
The original goal of the protagonists, Dr. Zorro and the Dutchman, is to travel to Europe, find and buy a boat, set sail on the Mediterranean and down along the Ivory Coast. The reader is led to believe that this quest will provide the heart and soul of the plot. Not only does the author fail to give that ultimately unrealized objective enough emotional grit to hold the narrative arc together, that goal becomes secondary and all too quickly abandoned as everyday needs take immediate priority. The story becomes a nearly daily adventure to overcome hunger, exposure and sobriety. These challenges could have offered some page-turning excitement. However, problem after problem seems to get resolved quickly and simply through serendipitous encounters with strangers, who miraculously appear offering places to crash, food to eat, and that inevitable next drug buzz. As a result, as the reader never gets the feeling that the protagonist is in genuine jeopardy, there is seldom more than a paragraph or two of real concern for his survival.
Adding to its lack of dramatic tension, more often than not when the trail gets bumpy, Killeen fails to describe his emotional duress. If the reader doesn’t get the chance to feel the main character’s fear and anxiety, the drug ecstasy and spontaneous free love become much less meaningful and rewarding by comparison. It’s almost as if the author is such a nice fellow that he doesn’t want the reader to ever experience more than a few sentences of squirm “Don’t worry, Dear Reader, Dr. Zorro will be alright, as the next paragraph will explain.”
Although the tome’s language throughout is vivid and colorful, the author could have benefited from more skillful editing — not to shorten, but more to enhance the quality of the writing and give the book an overall story arc. Unnecessary, excess adjectives and adverbs clutter the text and a plethora of idiosyncratic word choices evoke the image of an overly enthused writer giddily tittering over passage after passage with a thesaurus in hand, unable to pick one descriptive word over another. Adverbs are nearly always applied immediately in front of verbs (“They gleefully waved…” “I curiously noted…” etc.) when alternative wordings might have been more effective and graceful. For instance, in my opinion, “I started to feverishly bail…” would have been clearer and more impactful as, “Feverishly, I started to bail…” Redundancies abound, such as, “The conversation he conducted was beyond comprehension; I couldn’t understand a damn thing;” and “… where his reputation was pervasive and well known…” Cliché phrases (“crusty old man”) are too prevalent and occasional descriptive phrases defy logic “… blood-curdling, silent scream…” What the? Grammar, spelling and punctuation errors, too, crop up far more often than is acceptable.
As a result, with all the narrative and language issues, the book reads more like a draft in progress than a finished manuscript. These bad habits seem to become even more prevalent in later pages, suggesting that less care was given as the writing progressed. The latter chapters almost read as if they are taken verbatim from the pages of a journal.
The book is not without its delightful moments. One particularly charming passage takes place on a beach in Morocco, as Dr. Zorro and Vrandi achieve an extraordinary level of sexual fulfillment. Killeen’s description of this encounter is engaging and even a bit titillating. Then, however, as he says goodbye to the girl he’s falling for, only her sadness is described. As Dr. Zorro wonders whether he’ll ever see her again, we are left in the dark about how he feels about it. It’s situations like this that could affect the reader but fall short because of their emotional distance and lack of detail. The reader wants to know how the protagonist feels about what he is going through. A light-hearted description of what happened is not enough to make an effective story.
Killeen harkens this bygone era by way of a rose-colored rear-view mirror. The many casualties of those times of careless abandon are omitted from the picture. Readers who don’t know any better might assume that every hippie sailed through that indulgent decade without so much as a scratch. While the book oozes with charm and spunk, Dr. Zorro is portrayed as a childish, superficial, directionless, even narcissistic young man with no ambition other than to stay high and avoid being alone. In fact, he never really seems to grow or change from page one to the book’s inconclusive end.
Great stories star protagonists who care deeply about accomplishing difficult tasks. That’s what makes us care about them. Along their journeys, they come face to face with obstacles, and must change on a gut/core level in order to overcome those challenges and survive. That’s why we root for them. Dr. Zorro surely has charm and enthusiasm to burn — important and appealing qualities, to be sure. Unfortunately, in this case, charm, enthusiasm, and an extremely vivid memory don’t add up to great storytelling.
I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Dr. Zorro at his first book signing. I knew nothing about him or his book when I walked into the quaint little bookshop and realized I was surrounded by a crowd of lovable former hippies. By the end of the evening, I knew that reading his book would be an adventure, and Dr. Zorro did not disappoint. His days as a long-haired drug-consuming free-loving nomad were astounding and often frightening. I can't say I was envious of the doctor's psychedelic trips of the mind and body, but they were fascinating to read about from the safety of my home. The fact that he and his friends survived their endless escapades and went on to lead almost normal lives, gives this story a happy ending! If you want to peek behind the beaded curtain of a chapter in American history that will blow your mind, I recommend you take two aspirin and give Dr. Zorro a read!
What an amazing wild ride! This was a fun read that takes you right into the time period. Lot's of crazy stories and adventures. This would make an excellent film, hope to see it in theaters one day.
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