Hell-Bent For Heaven (the Mexico Trilogy) (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

Hell-Bent For Heaven, the second book of the Mexico Trilogy, is about David Asher, a man born for the '60's, who, along with his three “wives”, winds up in the highlands of Michoacán, where his cousin Jack and Miguel Mundo have just played out a great adventure (look for Daze of Innocence, the 1st book of the Mexico Trilogy).As the story begins, David was in Vietnam, because he was drawn to combat and too cool for school; not for the co-eds or anti-war movement, but everything else, damn near, about UC Berkeley--certainly for studying while the whole world was turning upside-down around him.After proving to himself that he had the guts to be in combat, David deserts and scams his way aboard a military flight to San Francisco. On his first day in Haight-Ashbury, he hooks up with Sherry and Angel, two teen angels dressed in white, who, like him, were made for the times. Aided by the place, the times, their innocence, and 2,500 mikes of lysergic acid each, they reach “the center of the universe”--an ecstatic state which they agree to maintain, 24/7, through as much ceremony, meditation, and sexual intercourse as it takes.Based on a true story, Hell-Bent For Heaven is the portrait of a man who enters a state of "superior consciousness" and refuses to turn back... by casting every shred of doubt deep into his unconscious--going over completely and never looking back. David considered it his duty to mankind--especially the guys who had left Vietnam less than whole--to explore the furthest reaches of his mind and come up with new symbology that his generation could live by; to live an extraordinary life--full-time, no matter who got hurt in the process. And, as we shall see, he makes a pretty good run at it before veering off onto one of life's little side trips.The side trip was marijuana smuggling... for a good cause, to buy an ex-hacienda for the landless campesinos of Valle Zipácuaro, because David, like his cousin Jack, felt compelled to make some Grand Gesture--something to justify his getting out of Vietnam on his feet rather than in a pine box or a wheelchair.Follow David’s changes, his journeys across Mexico, the friendships he forges with mexicanos and other gringos in the highlands of Mexico, his smuggling runs, his relentless pursuit by a jealous FBI agent, and his extraordinary relationship with Sherry, Angel, and Marlene, the three wives who, animated by his 24/7 energy, keep loving him and one another.Steven Kessler knows Mexico and the peoples of Mesoamerica. His writing is taut and powerful, his plots are large and realistic, and his characters are memorably romantic. You can read more about Steven Kessler's crowd in his other novels: Daze of Innocence and the Fisher of Hearts (the 1st and 3rd books of the Mexico Trilogy;) Indica Summer; Saint Benny Strikes Again; and the Jade King's Tomb, about Mayanists and archaeology in civil war-torn Guatemala--all on or coming soon to Amazon.com.Mr. Kessler, a veteran of Vietnam and the back-to-the-land movement, was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles He has lived for long periods of time on Lake Atitlán in the highlands of Guatemala, Lake Pátzcuaro in the highlands of Mexico, and Humboldt County, California.