Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Outside Looking In
T.C. Boyle
Review by Priscilla Comen
Outside Looking In
T.C. Boyle
Review by Priscilla Comen
Outside Looking In, by T.C. Boyle, begins with Herr Hofmann in 1943. He’s a research scientist and his young female assistant, Susi, is helping him. To test its effects, he takes a small dose of a chemical he has created. She is to be his witness. He feels this will revolutionize psychology and the need for psychotherapy. The chemical is LSD.
In 1962, a group of Harvard graduate students gather for a “session” at Tim Leary’s home to take the same drug. Among them are Fitz and his wife Joanie. Author Boyle is expert at getting us involved in the scene, in urging the reader to read on and on. The first part is told from Fitz’ point of view. The first “trip” they take with this drug is amazing: the colors they see are brilliant, the sex they have is amazing. Fitz and Joanie are swept away. The next time they go for a “session” at Tim’s, Tim has a different woman with him. This second trip is not the same as the first. Fitz goes outside, takes off his clothes, bumps against objects. It’s not a good one. But Fitz and Joanie begin to feel they’re part of “the gang,” going to Tim’s often. Even going to his office at the college. One day a meeting is called by the Psych department and Tim is criticized for conducting experiments with drugs, and without a medical doctor on site.
Tim and his group consider the psych department heads to be “lab rats mired in their mazes.” Tim encourages the gang to ignore the department. He rents a big house in Mexico for the summer. Fitz gets a scholarship as he’s short on money. Their son, Corey will go too. They all have a marvelous time there, swimming and snorkeling on the white beaches of Zihuantanejo. They eat delicious foods prepared by the hired cooks. Corey asks why they are doing this and he’s told it’s for research to help people who are psychologically ill. Fitz writes reports on all of it, hoping to use this for his thesis for his Master’s degree.
When they return to New England, near Boston, Tim Leary rents a huge castle with sixty-four rooms, enough for everyone on his team. Joanie is ecstatic until she finds her fifteen year old son Corey in bed with Nancy, a girl his age. And again when the police bring the teens to the house and accuse them of shoplifting. Articles in local newspapers have criticized them as being drug dealers, and the Mexican government had deported them as aliens. Fitz is obsessed with another woman, Lori, after he spends a week with her in a private room in the castle. Joanie leaves for New Jersey where her parents live. Will she return to Fitz? Will Fitz wake up to what he is doing to his life and to his marriage? Will the police raid their big July 4th party? Find out in this revealing novel by T.C. Boyle on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
In 1962, a group of Harvard graduate students gather for a “session” at Tim Leary’s home to take the same drug. Among them are Fitz and his wife Joanie. Author Boyle is expert at getting us involved in the scene, in urging the reader to read on and on. The first part is told from Fitz’ point of view. The first “trip” they take with this drug is amazing: the colors they see are brilliant, the sex they have is amazing. Fitz and Joanie are swept away. The next time they go for a “session” at Tim’s, Tim has a different woman with him. This second trip is not the same as the first. Fitz goes outside, takes off his clothes, bumps against objects. It’s not a good one. But Fitz and Joanie begin to feel they’re part of “the gang,” going to Tim’s often. Even going to his office at the college. One day a meeting is called by the Psych department and Tim is criticized for conducting experiments with drugs, and without a medical doctor on site.
Tim and his group consider the psych department heads to be “lab rats mired in their mazes.” Tim encourages the gang to ignore the department. He rents a big house in Mexico for the summer. Fitz gets a scholarship as he’s short on money. Their son, Corey will go too. They all have a marvelous time there, swimming and snorkeling on the white beaches of Zihuantanejo. They eat delicious foods prepared by the hired cooks. Corey asks why they are doing this and he’s told it’s for research to help people who are psychologically ill. Fitz writes reports on all of it, hoping to use this for his thesis for his Master’s degree.
When they return to New England, near Boston, Tim Leary rents a huge castle with sixty-four rooms, enough for everyone on his team. Joanie is ecstatic until she finds her fifteen year old son Corey in bed with Nancy, a girl his age. And again when the police bring the teens to the house and accuse them of shoplifting. Articles in local newspapers have criticized them as being drug dealers, and the Mexican government had deported them as aliens. Fitz is obsessed with another woman, Lori, after he spends a week with her in a private room in the castle. Joanie leaves for New Jersey where her parents live. Will she return to Fitz? Will Fitz wake up to what he is doing to his life and to his marriage? Will the police raid their big July 4th party? Find out in this revealing novel by T.C. Boyle on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.