Occam's Razor

by Phil Semler

When 16-year old Summer Bowls loses his virginity to the fledgling folksinger Janis Joplin in San Francisco’s North Beach in 1965, he decides to be a counter-culture journalist and document the times, starting with stealing her soiled panties from her apartment.
When Summer meets the (not quite yet!) ascetic Eastern seeker Larry Kuagmire at Berkeley in 1969 during an anti-war demonstration at Sproul Plaza, the unlikely pair of college dropouts become friends for life. Larry leaves for the Himalaya for five years to find himself, while Summer moves to the Haight and writes for the underground press.
Puti Dolma, a Tibetan refugee, comes to San Francisco in 1970 to open a curio store in the Haight, with her newborn daughter, Tashi. On the same day, she meets the transvestite singer Sylvester of the Cockettes, and then Brigitte Wong, a Chinese American lesbian beat poet from Chinatown. Puti and Brigitte fall in love and move to the Castro.
When Larry, the now celibate, world-traveling mystic seeker of truth, simplicity, and Oneness meets Tashi, his love-child conceived in the snowy Himalaya, his life is changed.
OCCAM’S RAZOR is a psychedelic update and homage to Somerset Maugham’s 1944 classic, RAZOR’S EDGE, the first best-selling book of the war-weary counterculture and eastern mysticism, as well as a coming-of-age epic.

360 pages, ebook

First published June 16, 2012

About the author

Phil Semler is the author of 13 novels (most recently Scattered Parts), and 2 travel books. He lives in San Francisco with his wife.

Reviews

[Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a rich, multi-layered portrait of a time and place. The 60s and 70s in San Francisco. Our guides are a diverse group of residents. Invented characters like Summer Bowles - rock critic, Larry - seeker of enlightenment, Puti - Tibetan immigrant and Ayn Rand fan, Brigitte - poet and Puti's lover, and Pat (or is it Ellie?) - a one-time Weatherman. These, and others, interact with the real. With Sylvester, the Cockettes, Iggy Pop and the Stooges...with French philosopher and historian, Michel Foucault. As their stories unfold the characters grow and change convincingly. And to add an element we might not have anticipated in this tale of "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll," philosophical dialogues between William of Occam and Vivekananda (translated by Larry) are scattered throughout. This is serious stuff but, as Summer suggests when he introduces the first excerpt, we can skip it if we wish. (I didn't, but was tempted to once or twice, just to keep up with everyone's adventures). Summer also says, these pages are about "the big ones" - time, memory, being, death - and as such they are worthy of our attention. They're not without some "farcical comedy" either. Check out the two philosophers spying on a pagan rite of spring, a fertility ritual. The 60s, 70s, and the middle ages too!

You'll likely see yourself in one or another of these characters. You'll welcome them all as new friends.

[David Cain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freaky shit. Man, that's some freaky shit.