The Risk of Being Ridiculous

by Guy Maynard

It's Boston 1969 and nineteen-year-old Ben Tucker lives in a funky apartment on Mountfort Street with his tribe of fellow long-haired freaks. Together they mix radical street politics, a love of rock of roll, and celebratory drug use in their desperate search for lives that make sense in a world distorted by war, racism, and bankrupt values.Ridiculous takes you on a passionate, lyrical six-week ride through confrontation and confusion, courts and cops, parties and politics, school and the streets, Weathermen and women's liberation, acid and activism, revolution and reaction. And, of course, Love-as through it all, Ben feverishly pursues the long-shot desire of his life: Sarah Stein.

296 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

Reviews

[Byron · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was serendipitous, or perhaps the work of some computer algorithm, that this book showed up on a list of heavily discounted titles at Amazon right at as Occupy Wall Street was kicking off. The Risk of Being Ridiculous is all about protesting, being a member of the 99%, getting into fights with the police and what have you. I even went to the book's Facebook Page and saw where there was something about Occupy Eugene, Oregon, and I'm willing to believe it wasn't just there for marketing purposes. There can't be that many people at Occupy Eugene, Oregon anyway. It could just be a few homeless people sleeping in the park. I heard the Pacific Northwest is lousy with bums. They migrate down to Florida for the winter, like retired people, which I guess in a sense they are. They can afford to, because they aren't homeless people per se. They're children of relative privilege who ran away from home because they thought it would be cool to be homeless.

If only The Risk of Being Ridiculous were a better book, it would have been perfect. It's just not very good. I found the way the protagonist punctuated every sentence in the book with the word shit to be obnoxious, it was was never clear to me why he was so into the main love interest, aside from the fact that it was hinted at (but not strongly enough) that she had a prodigious rack, and it doesn't make sense why he keeps showing up to these protests, other than that the author wanted it to be the backdrop for what's otherwise the world's most banal teen love story. I kept hoping a cop would just shoot him or bury him underneath the jail, and that would be the end of it. But no, it just kept going and going, like the Energizer Bunny. I don't have any respect for guys who don't realize that the reason they're so in love with the first girl who ever let them hit it is precisely because she's the first girl who ever let them hit it. Smarten up, Nas.

[Harold Titus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met Guy at a book fair in Oregon a month ago. We exchanged books. He's a damned good writer.

I was 35 years old teaching eighth grade students in 1969, the year the action of this novel begins to take place. Having been straight and liberal all my life, I was curious to read about the attitudes and life style of counter-culture kids at that time. It took me awhile to begin to appreciate the main character and his friends (about 70 pages), but then their vulnerabilities and sense of humanity took hold. I recognized quite clearly the parallel between kids of college age raging then against the draft, the Vietnam War, racism, and abusive law enforcement and the anger that young people (and the rest of us who care about humanity) feel today as demonstrated by the "Occupy" movement. Several scenes are strikingly effective. The LSD trip during which the main character -- Ben Tucker -- recognizes that his girlfriend is pulling away from him was impressive. So also was the brief scene that portrayed the rigidity of an ultrafeminist about what should be done about a drawing on Ben's apartment wall. I enjoyed the clash of attitudes between Ben and the people at the old folks home and how it was resolved. The student demonstration scene at Northeastern University and the arrest and court scenes that followed kept me reading well into the evening. I also appreciated how the author subtlely indicates Ben's first stirrings of maturity. There is much merit in this book.

[Billymojo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Painful to read because the emotions and weaknesses of the protagonist reminded me of my own at that age. The book feels autobiographical. The author uses terms that have long sunk into nonuse. Freak, for example, a word that was actually used at the time to describe a person. Hippie is now used but, to my recollection, that word was never in common use, outside of the media.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

fairly compelling for most of it, maybe just because of the familiarity for my generation, but the end was a big disappointment with no real resolution, insights, notions of what was to happen to the characters, etc. Should have been labeled as a memoir ...

[Lisa Keipp · Rating 1 out of 5]

zzzzzzzz

[Tarrant · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young aimless radical in the 60s--poignant story at the same time you want to tell the young man to grow up or wonder what happened to you that you did grow up.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm 70% done and I don't think I can finish it. I like the characters but I do not feel like they are going anywhere. I'm worried the author is leading me to nowhere (and a let down)