The Mad Artist: Psychonautic Adventures in the 1970s

[The Mad Artist]

Here's a review from The Psychedelic Press UK of my new memoir, which covers four years of psychedelically enhanced life in late 70s Britain. It’s written within the trip-lit tradition that inspired me—The Doors of Perception, The Hasheesh Eater, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas—and gives a user’s-eye perspective of mind-expanded states with very intricate, detailed descriptions. Most contemporary drug memoirs are stories of mishap, recovery and rehab; but this one is about the actual experience of tripping and being stoned—both the upside and downside—and all the weird, wonderful, funny and scary headspaces you can get into, and how they impact on your larger view of life.

The first 15,000 words is devoted to my life-changing first acid trip, and there follow many other accounts of acid and mushroom trips, together with marathon dope cake and smoking sessions, involving a large cast of characters. The underlying story concerns a developing quest for insights and enlightenment in the Zen tradition, and for arcane knowledge in the shamanic tradition, referencing Carlos Castaneda and R Gordon Wasson, all set against a background of life at art college and the British hippy, free festival scene. The book is available on Amazon.com.

http://psypressuk.com/2010/04/05/literary-review-‘the-mad-artist’-by-roger-keen/

 

[The Mad Artist]

The Mad Artist is now available from the Amazon Kindle store, for $2.99.

http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Artist-Psychonautic-Adventures-ebook/dp/B003XT5RAI

 

[The Mad Artist]

Sample Chapters now available to read:

‘The Alphabet Wood’, the book's opening five chapters, detailing Roger and Henry's epic first LSD trip. And ‘A Session at Ebury Lodge’, featuring the wacky Bournemouth student hall of residence and introducing many of the colourful characters who appear throughout the story.

Full details, links and other info can be found on the new updated Mad Artist web page:

http://www.rogerkeen.com/the_mad_artist.htm