In retrospect, 1968 was a pretty good year to come unglued. Young people were questioning everything, so when Jim Edwards' old life fell suddenly apart, he went off in search of a new, more authentic way to live. Jim soon slipped down the hippie rabbit hole to live among the weird, hoping to explore the uncharted regions that lie beyond common sense, while also trying to keep Nixon from shipping his ass off to war or prison and, who knows, maybe even get laid now and then.Chasing Rabbits takes a picaresque turn when its narrator decides to hitchhike through Europe for a month. As Jim sets off to visit his college roommate, then a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia, the road takes hold, leading him from Tunis to Algiers and then south across the Sahara, through the Sahel and down to southern coast of West Africa. It is 1970, and Jim invites his readers to hitch with him through the last remnants of traditional Africa, as he travels to remote villages, camps on the Dogon cliffs of Bandiagara and explores the medieval mud cities of Mali. By the time he goes back across the Sahara and into Morocco, a year has passed and Jim has come to see his life through the eyes of a traveler.Readers will delight in the array of bizarre characters that can only be encountered on the fringes of civilization: A Basque separatist on the lam, the Madame General of the Red Light district in Accra, jazz poet Ted Joans, the snake man and Chicago the speed freak, Baba Roo from Timbuktu, con men, draft dodgers, drug mules, road wraiths, and Mohammed the tough guy father figure truck driver who taught Jim how to survive in the desert. But in the end, Chasing Rabbits is a coming of age story. Its first-person narration offers an intimate look into the mind of self-discovery; it has been called "An ethnography of the soul."From the authorChasing Rabbits is definitely not for everyone, but certain readers have taken great pleasure from this novel. Among them: Those nostalgic for or curious about the 60's. Chasing Rabbits is not your typical account of the Counterculture. It is not another Electric-Kool-Aid-Acid-Test-Fear-and-Loathing version of the very hip, for its narrator lacked the requisite self-assurance of the truly groovy and was, sadly, an unintentional Tory in the Sexual Revolution. He did, however, participate in the psychotropic explorations of that era, and shares with the reader his unique perspective on "Life, the universe, and everything."I did my best to write this novel from the perspective I recall from the late 60's, and was exhilarated by reliving that period of my life. Sure, we were hopelessly romantic, and at times elaborately silly, but I'd forgotten how curious and optimistic we had been in the years before the Reagan presidency and the right wing's assault on America's better angels.Travelers.For those readers who have slipped into time traveler mode while standing among ancient ruins or in forgotten places, for the hitchhikers, backpackers, tourist explorers, Peace Corps volunteers and sundry expatriates who have placed themselves in foreign places, Chasing Rabbits is a shared experience of the wonders of travel and the solitary adventure of life on the road.Ultimately, I believe that anyone who savors a good read will find pleasure in Chasing Rabbits.D. iRev Mann
