Book Spotlight: The Book of Changes

Coffeetown Announces the October Release of Jack Remick’s Novel about Berkeley in the 70s, The Book of Changes

Seattle, WA.— On October 15, 2013, Coffeetown Press will release The Book of Changes ($15.95, 306 pp, 6x9 Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-60381-186-6), by Jack Remick, a work of literary fiction that covers a tumultuous year in the life of an idealistic first-year male student enrolled at UC Berkeley in 1971.

The Book of Changes is Book Three of The California Quartet, a series of standalone novels about young men coming of age in California during the 60s and 70s. The final volume, Trio of Lost Souls, will be released by Coffeetown Press in 2014. The series began with The Deification and Valley Boy.

“I’m tempted to say this is Remick’s best work,” says Frank Araujo, Author of The Q Quest, A Perfect Orange, and The Secrets of Don Pedro Miguel of Jack’s novel Valley Boy. “The writing never lets up from the first line to the last. Ricky is the prototype Okie kid who haunted the Wasteland we know as the San Joaquin. The story is witty, tense and true.”

Of The Deification, mystery writer Robert J. Ray writes: “The language, the timing, the humor, the strong verbs, the concrete nouns, the world beneath the world–all wrapped up in one novel ...You gotta read this book!”

Of Remick’s novel, Blood (Camel Press, 2011), Wayne Gunn wrote on LambdaLiterary.org: “For an author to choose as his explicit models Camus, Genet, and de Sade ... and to earn the right to be mentioned in their company is [a goal] that perhaps Jack Remick has indeed achieved.”

“Beast” is a pure innocent with one simple goal--to become an expert on the Middle Ages. He comes to Berkeley, the Cathedral of Learning, in 1971, a time of political upheaval, hallucinogenic drugs, abundant sex, and down-and-dirty rock and roll. On his quest for meaning he hangs out with a Harley-riding dwarf, a pre-goth artists' model, a sorority girl turned nymphomaniac, and the heir to a family of French aristocrats with a bloody history dating back to before Joan of Arc. Beast soon discovers that he can’t live in the past but has to embrace the present, with its traps and land mines and the horrors of contemporary society—death by motorcycle and bad acid trips. The world is exploding, but students still go to classes, fall in love, get laid, study in libraries, win awards, even graduate. The country is on fire, and Berkeley supplies the fuel.

Says Remick: “When I went to Cal, there was no tuition. Education was free. You paid a $76.50 student fee. You paid for your books, your room and board. Anything that was left you spent on booze and motorcycles. Then Ronald Reagan was elected governor and the good times ended. The Free Speech Movement (FSM) came along and the rebellion that started in Sproul Hall grew into a firestorm of protests and death and destruction. Education took a hit, tuition blasted off, leaving only the rich and well-heeled in the classrooms. After Ronald Reagan, California was never at peace again. This novel, The Book of Changes doesn’t purport to be either a sociological thesis or a history of anything. It is a fictional record of a sort filtered through time and the consciousness of young women and men who were looking for a new definition of America, of California, of the world. We didn’t succeed.”

Jack Remick is a poet, short story writer, and novelist. Blood, A Novel was published by Camel Press in 2011. The Deification, Valley Boy, and Gabriela and the Widow are all available from Coffeetown Press. Coming in 2014: a collection of poems, Sartori. You can find Jack online at www.jackremick.com.

The Book of Changes can currently be preordered on Amazon.com. After October 15th, it will be available in eBook and 6x9 trade paperback editions on BN.com, the European Amazons and Amazon Japan. Wholesale orders can be placed through info@coffeetownpress.com or Ingram. Libraries can also purchase books through Follett Library Resources or Midwest Library Service.