Books › Been down so long it looks like up to me
Been down so long it looks like up to me
First published 1966 · 329 pages
A manic, jazz-fueled joyride through the birth of the 1960s counterculture, dripping with cynicism and rebellious exuberance.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being strapped into a runaway roller coaster with a brilliant, cynical tour guide. It captures the exact, chaotic frequency of the early 1960s counterculture, bridging the gap between Beat generation cool and hippie psychedelia. The prose is a kinetic, jazz-inflected torrent of words that pulls you through a hazy, hallucinatory landscape of campus rebellions, road trips, and drug-fueled philosophizing. It is loud, irreverent, and unapologetically messy, vibrating with a manic energy that masks a deep, existential restlessness. Fans of Thomas Pynchon and Jack Kerouac will devour this word-drunk picaresque. It is a perfect match for anyone who loves their satire sharp, their protagonists delightfully unhinged, and their prose bursting with rebellious, untamed life.
- Mood
- chaotic
- hallucinatory
- restless
- rebellious
- Tone
- irreverent
- manic
- cynical
- satirical
- exuberant
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- counterculture rebellion · youthful disillusionment · search for authenticity · absurdity of institutions · existential restlessness
- The writing
- Kinetic, jazz-inflected, and densely lyrical, blending Beat generation spontaneity with sharp, satirical wit.
- The arc
- Begins with a manic, detached sense of invincibility and spirals into a sobering confrontation with the inescapable realities of adulthood and mortality.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave the chaotic, anti-establishment energy of the 1960s and love manic, word-drunk picaresques.
Content notes
- drug use
- sexual content
- period-typical bigotry
- alcohol abuse
About the book
Based largely on Farinã's college experiences and travels, the novel is a comic picaresque story of Gnossos Pappadopoulis that takes place in the American West, in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution, and at an upstate New York university.
Description from Open Library.
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