On The Edge Of Either Way

Victoria Easterday's full-throttled account of living and learning in the psychedelic era is a fun and sad, sometimes harrowing, and often poignant memoir. Easterday revises the meaning of the 60's anthem, "dropping out," through her moving portrayal of growing up a trauma survivor in what she calls the "beige world" of Southern California. For her, "dropping out" became a form of "dropping in" to a more life-sustaining way of existing. A reverent hippie, flower child, and dues-paying member of the generation the defined an era, Easterday shares stories of her time smoking dope with Timothy Leary, meeting Richard Alpert before he became Ram Dass, dropping acid made by Stanley Owlsley—the man who popularized LSD, meeting Ravi Shankar, dancing naked with the Hell's Angels, and more! Shared with inimitable wit, humor and clarity, this important book moves through dimensions of childhood violence, escape, wonder, love, friendship and self-compassion, as dreams of utopia were transformed by the impacts of the Vietnam war. Buckle your seatbelt, open this book, and be rewarded by the ride.