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Charge..!
CHARGE..! is the opening volley of a great new artillery man of the word. Bill Amidon is here to stay [sic!], beginning with this one, and he's going to rip off sanity and America from now on. Let them good times roll, honey. --Seymour Krim
Amidon's first and only novel - is the story of anti-hero Jesse Faulcom, "a long haired, dope-smoking, one-eyed lustful hippie living in New York's lower East Side in the 1960s."
In his 2009 comments about this era for the NY Times, Ishmael Reed commented "The late Bill Amidon's novel Charge.! is the best novel written about that period. He was one of the writers who hung out at Stanleys, a bar where black and white writers and artists gathered in the 1960s, presided over by the owner, our uncle, benefactor and patron named Stanley Tolkin."
Amidon's first and only novel - is the story of anti-hero Jesse Faulcom, "a long haired, dope-smoking, one-eyed lustful hippie living in New York's lower East Side in the 1960s."
In his 2009 comments about this era for the NY Times, Ishmael Reed commented "The late Bill Amidon's novel Charge.! is the best novel written about that period. He was one of the writers who hung out at Stanleys, a bar where black and white writers and artists gathered in the 1960s, presided over by the owner, our uncle, benefactor and patron named Stanley Tolkin."
469 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
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October 22, 2016FLOAT!!!
Just because a few of you, you who findyourselves interested in oddities ; might want to snap up one of the few remaining copies of this (hippie) oddity. I'll get around to reading it myself one of these days. Honest.
_________
"The late Bill Amidon’s novel Charge..! is the best novel written about that period. He was one of the writers who hung out at Stanley’s, a bar where black and white writers and artists gathered in the 1960s, presided over by the owner, our uncle, benefactor and patron named Stanley Tolkin." --Ishmael Reed Reflects on Woodstock.
Sukenick drops the novel in Down and in: Life in the Underground ---> "Out the plate glass window I see Bill Amidon heading in, sporting a vaguely Chinese-looking diabolical mustache. He sits down at the bar and scans the mostly empty tables in the long room. Amidon is very speedy and likes to talk. He got out one unthinking energetic novel called Charge..! (1971), then literally ran out of energy and packed it in. He just stopped eating, terminal anorexia." (159)
Kirkus Review
"Wellifyou don't mind messing with a lotof unnecessary experimentation and youare ready for the lastof the Great Beatnik novels andyou can stomach the characters like Jesse Faulcon who is constantly inandout of the sack when he's not escapingfrom jail, vomiting on someone'sgrave, hangingaround Shondor's, abar, killing a wounded friend, hassling a roommate or watching his infant daughter get her brains dashedout, you can CHARGE! All by yourself."
Just because a few of you, you who findyourselves interested in oddities ; might want to snap up one of the few remaining copies of this (hippie) oddity. I'll get around to reading it myself one of these days. Honest.
_________
"The late Bill Amidon’s novel Charge..! is the best novel written about that period. He was one of the writers who hung out at Stanley’s, a bar where black and white writers and artists gathered in the 1960s, presided over by the owner, our uncle, benefactor and patron named Stanley Tolkin." --Ishmael Reed Reflects on Woodstock.
Sukenick drops the novel in Down and in: Life in the Underground ---> "Out the plate glass window I see Bill Amidon heading in, sporting a vaguely Chinese-looking diabolical mustache. He sits down at the bar and scans the mostly empty tables in the long room. Amidon is very speedy and likes to talk. He got out one unthinking energetic novel called Charge..! (1971), then literally ran out of energy and packed it in. He just stopped eating, terminal anorexia." (159)
Kirkus Review
"Wellifyou don't mind messing with a lotof unnecessary experimentation and youare ready for the lastof the Great Beatnik novels andyou can stomach the characters like Jesse Faulcon who is constantly inandout of the sack when he's not escapingfrom jail, vomiting on someone'sgrave, hangingaround Shondor's, abar, killing a wounded friend, hassling a roommate or watching his infant daughter get her brains dashedout, you can CHARGE! All by yourself."
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