Erin

by Robert Dickins

When journalist Elijah Baillie wakes up in the arms of a mysterious girl called Erin, with no memory of who he is or how he came to be there, he is cast into the tragedy of memory. Struggling to find any sense of self, through a plethora of psychedelic drugs and a festival on the verge of anarchy, Elijah is led toward a dark confrontation with his past.

Edgy, fast, and cutting-edge, Erin will suck you right into the mayhem.

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 9, 2013

Reviews

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rob Dickins is well known as a guru of psychedelia and an avid participant in the British festival scene, and here in his first novel he blends the two ingredients in a startlingly original and creative fusion. Erin takes place over the span of the Solpsycle Gathering, a medium-scale festival with a strong New Age ambience. Lije and his group of mates move somnambulantly through festy space-time, bearing the chaotic, fractured perceptions of non-stop partying. Enter the beautiful and enigmatic Erin, who manifests to Lije as a psychonautic guide, leading him through extravagant mushroom and salvia trips in an odyssey of self discovery. At first Lije is entranced, but the path is a tricky one, and deeper into the trip an insidious imp appears who lures Lije into bad places. For indeed beneath all a dreadful truth lurks, and somehow Lije must come to terms with it.

The word paintings of altered states are right up there with the best, and Rob’s freeform, lyrical style ideally suits the nature of such experience. He’s particularly good on the fast-shifting and overlapping effects of multiple substance use, with mushrooms, MDMA, LSD and salvia all playing a part, and not forgetting spliffs and cider! The rushes, the exuberant highs and the sudden nosedives into paranoia all surge through the reader in a dizzying accelerated compression. And the various textures of festival life, with the mud, the discomfort, the sometimes bullying guards and the music which ‘shimmered into fractals that danced around my eyes’ are all superbly rendered.

Erin then is no mere documentary record but a sophisticated multi-levelled psychodrama, where Lije’s battles with his inner demons, set against the richly hallucinated backdrop of Solpsycle, come to resemble some fin de siècle Technicolor Greek myth. It’s a psy novel for the high tech age, in which the wide array of substances available and the composite polymorphous nature of their effects reflects our zeitgeist, just as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas encapsulated the souring of the hippy dream back in the early ’70s. Erin is a marvellous debut, and a book that anyone who wants to sample a slice of today’s psychedelic culture should read.

[Joëlle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly loved it. I did not understand the ending, i think i will have to read it again to understand the whole journey Lije goes through to truly grasp what he is fighting against and who or what Erin is - at first i thought it was just his Ex that he killed and who was coming back to haunt him in his various trip - but as the novel went on the lines became more and more blurred and Erin became so much more; maybe a concept, a metaphor, a guidance for Lije. Did she ever exist? Doesn‘t she have to as she was mentioned by his friends? Or did Lije imagine that? I love that this book keeps me thinking, even after i finished it. It almost felt like a poet, in a nearly grotesque way and i loved that.
At times it was hard for me to follow and understand what was going on, that‘s why i gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

[Serene HM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entrancing non-fiction with a lyrical writing style. As a festival-enthusiasts I enjoyed reading this.
At times, a bit confusing as you “fall into the trip” with the main character yet I give kudos to the writer for succeeding in bringing this energy across with his words.