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Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty

tim sandlin

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Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, AARP is going to win.

Guy Fontaine’s time has passed. His wife is dead, and the small-town Oklahoma newspaper for which he covered sports has forced him into retirement. He sold his home and moved to northern California to live in his daughter’s guest cottage. It’s all over but the golf.

Then, in a heartbeat, Guy’s life goes from boredom to nightmare. After he blacks out on the golf course and drives a golf cart down the San Bruno Freeway, the dream of independence through his golden years flies out the window. Guy finds himself an involuntary resident in assisted living at Mission Pescadero, which its administrator, Alexandra Truman, calls “the premier retirement community in Half Moon Bay.”

Only this is 2022, and the old-timers at Mission Pescadero are nothing like the old-timers in south-central Oklahoma. After surviving fifty years of corporate ladders, carpools, mortgages, and insurance annuities, these senior citizens yearn for a time when life was fun—1967, the days of sex, drugs, peace, revolution, rock and roll, and more sex. So they transform Mission Pescadero into their own version of it. Even the dining hall is divided into where people were during the Summer of Love: Berkeley, Old Haight, New Haight, Sausalito, New York. The drugs may be different and the sex is driven by girls instead of guys, but for the residents, rock and roll goes on forever.

And what a bunch they are. There’s Ray John, the cynical writer of letters to the editor, who will never again be in a situation without complaint; Winston, the drug-dealing, womanizing wheelchair mechanic; Sunshines #1 and #2, still fighting over who is the original; Henry, lonely and perpetually cold; and Phaedra, the self-proclaimed creator of feminism, who hates everyone young, straight, healthy, or happy, including her lifelong companion, Suchada.

The world would like nothing more than to forget these people past their prime, but they have other ideas. So when Alexander discovers Henry’s cat, Mr. Scratchy, living in a closet and evicts him, the radicals take over, declare themselves the free nation of Pepper Land, and crank up the music. Only The Man, in the person of Lieutenant Cyrus Monk—sworn by his mother to bust all hippies—cannot abide free senior citizens. The conflict mushrooms into an epic battle between authority and anarchy, young and old, intolerance and free love—complete with twenty-four-hour news coverage.

By turns outrageous and hilarious, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty is Sandlin’s exploration of his own vision of eternal truth—that love blooms, rock and roll changes lives, and hippies never get old. In the process, he shows us the importance of staying true to ourselves, however and wherever we end up.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 18,2007
Places
california, 

This edition

Format
320 pages, Hardcover
Published
January 18, 2007 by Riverhead Hardcover
ISBN
9781594489334
ASIN
1594489335
Language
English

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About the author

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tim sandlin

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 73 votes)
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73 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Deku0W0
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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very funny story about a baby boomer who ends up driving his golf cart down the freeway in LA and ends up in a retirement village. The other residents end up overthrowing the administrator of the place and taking over. Power to the people!!!
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
Bellipon
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I absolutely LOVED this book
Hilarious well written and lots of fun!
Here is the review from Amazon

Though Jimi doesn't make an appearance in this near-future satire, Sandlin (Skipped Parts; Sorrow Floats) has fun with his surviving fans. The year is 2022 (the year Jimi would've turned 80), and strait-laced retiree Guy Fontaine, at his daughter's behest, moves into the Mission Pescadero nursing home, where aged hippies, former radicals and random California nutjobs refuse to give up their sex, drugs and rock and roll. Guy is stricken with an acute case of culture shock, but gets over it with the help of a few friendly residents who aren't living in a perpetual summer of love. But just as Guy is getting into the scene, the residents take control of the facility to protest the lack of respect they receive from their families, doctors and the home's administrators. Though not all of the humor works across generations (chants of "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh. AARP is gonna win"), most does, and the action, thankfully, is far from bingo night and crafts hour. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
Muegeedo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Funny! Here's what us baby boomers could be facing in 20 years. We will prevail!
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Milan090
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Maybe I would have liked this book better if I was 10 years older and a child of the 60's or if my own mother was not in an assisted living facility...The story is an examination of how you cannot exert authority unless the subjects are willing to accept it, and that's interesting. But the prison-like running of the facility seemed so far-fetched that I couldn't really get into the story.
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CrescentWaves
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I almost considered not finishing it, because I wasn't really getting into it. There were a few parts I really enjoyed, when the characters reflected more on their life and how they got to where they are now, and some parts did make me laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. Overall, it seemed a little unbelievable. Maybe if I got more of the 60's references, I would have enjoyed it more.
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Ataba
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I could not put this book down. It walks the line of nostalgia without crossing over into triteness and offers a touching view into the sadness, joy, frustration and humor that is growing older.
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floecity
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Unrealistic story about Baby Boomers in assisted living center. They are not that with it to enjoy sex, drugs, and rock and roll! Interesting idea but poorly written and silly.
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