Bruce Leonard tells his coming of age story. Not just any story, but a wild ride that took him from the button-down world of East Coast privilege to his draft-dodging journey to Hawaii's outer islands working with and mentoring paint-sniffing Hawaiian teen dropouts. Somewhere along the way Bruce becomes Captain Energy, who, with his equally delusional troupe of ragtag hangers-on, sets out to change music and the world as we know it.
The escapades with his band, The Electric Flesh, are hilarious as they somehow talk their way on stage to perform at the Diamond Head Crater Rock Festival in Honolulu, or when, high on peyote, he goes skinny dipping, can't find his clothes, gets picked up by an off-duty cop and is promptly arrested for incident exposure on Maui. You meet a cast of colorful characters on the road that will put Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters to shame.
Leonard grew up in an upper middle class family from a small town near New York City, makes Eagle Scout, becomes a stand-out collegiate wrestler, the "showman" of his fraternity. You watch him morph from a Nixon-voting conservative Republican to a full-throttled anti-war liberal. He also tells of his anguished relationship with his father who did not approve of Bruce's radical ideas and the pains he went to to avoid a war he felt was unjust and criminal.
For anyone who lived through the upheaval of that period, this will bring it all back home. For those not yet of age, this will give you a personal insight into what "The Sixties" was all about.
Bravo Bruce Leonard! Read this book. I promise you won't forget it.
OR
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Reviews with images
CAPTAIN ENERGY and his Time Machine...
Have you ever wanted to travel in a time machine and experience the sixties? Well, ..now you can. Welcome to Captain Energy: A True Story. This drug and tye-dyed journey is a colorful recollection by Author Bruce Leonard and delivered in tripped out lysergic bites. This book will both entertain you and take you back to a time when young people were breaking out of a button-down mindset to rise up against the machine. To avoid being part a war he didn't feel was legitimate, Leonard chose instead to travel to a low income housing in the 50th State and make a difference. He worked tirelessly with local Hawaiin kids by encouraging them to stop destroying their brains by sniffing paint and drop "reds". He created and developed a community program for those kids that was later adapted by the State of Hawaii. Along the way he suffered defeat by an uncaring government legislation and tripped down the path of self enlightment via Peyote and Maui Wowie ending up in a pool of septic sunrise and ... Jail. .. Hey! .. I don't want to be a spoiler. Buy the book and take the trip. ... and We'll see you on the othe side. ... Aloha! (ps. The attached photo is someone (me) who was there and can testify to this book's authenticity ..... ;>) ..)
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2016
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2016
CAPTAIN ENERGY and his Time Machine...
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2016
Have you ever wanted to travel in a time machine and experience the sixties? Well, ..now you can. Welcome to Captain Energy: A True Story. This drug and tye-dyed journey is a colorful recollection by Author Bruce Leonard and delivered in tripped out lysergic bites. This book will both entertain you and take you back to a time when young people were breaking out of a button-down mindset to rise up against the machine. To avoid being part a war he didn't feel was legitimate, Leonard chose instead to travel to a low income housing in the 50th State and make a difference. He worked tirelessly with local Hawaiin kids by encouraging them to stop destroying their brains by sniffing paint and drop "reds". He created and developed a community program for those kids that was later adapted by the State of Hawaii. Along the way he suffered defeat by an uncaring government legislation and tripped down the path of self enlightment via Peyote and Maui Wowie ending up in a pool of septic sunrise and ... Jail. .. Hey! .. I don't want to be a spoiler. Buy the book and take the trip. ... and We'll see you on the othe side. ... Aloha! (ps. The attached photo is someone (me) who was there and can testify to this book's authenticity ..... ;>) ..)
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2016
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