Janet Planet

by Eleanor Lerman

The literary embodiment of the Woodstock generation, Carlos Castaneda became a world-wide celebrity in the 1960s with his books on alternative spirituality. Counting fans and followers like John Lennon, Jim Morrison and William Burroughs, Castaneda was the literary rock star of his generation. Today, his writings continue to influence a new generation of spiritual seekers although many now believe that the basis of his work, a meeting with a sorcerer in the Mexican desert, was a product of his imagination. Castaneda and a core group of his female followers met a sad end not at all fitting with the sorcerer persona he had created for himself. In her new book, Janet Planet, acclaimed poet Eleanor Lerman builds on the fascinating story of Castaneda s life as a metaphor for what happened to many people of that generation, and the hippie movement itself.Janet Planet, published by Woodstock, NY-based Mayapple Press is a unique work that attempts to showcase the young and rebellious spirit of a Woodstock generation that eventually grew up and away from those glorious hippie days. In the novel, Janet Harris, known as Janet Planet, is the reader's guide into and out of the psychedelic years. She joins Jorge Castelan (a fictionalized Castaneda) and his circle of women and then falls into the new age movement of alternative spirituality. Set in the hippie haven of Woodstock, Janet embarks on her own spiritual journey into the mystery that lies beyond life.In Janet Planet, Lerman spiritual ideas of the hippie culture.The desire by those in the Woodstock generation to continue to find relevance and meaning in their lives as they grow older.The dark - and not so dark - reality of living with a cult, and how one can shape a life afterwards.A different way of looking at a relationship between two women whose friendship helps them embark on a spiritual journey.

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 20, 2011

About the author

Eleanor Lerman is a writer who lives in New York. Her first book of poetry, Armed Love (Wesleyan University Press, 1973), published when she was twenty-one, was nominated for a National Book Award. She has since published four other award-winning collections of poetry—Come the Sweet By and By (University of Massachusetts Press, 1975); The Mystery of Meteors (Sarabande Books, 2001); Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds (Sarabande Books, 2005); and The Sensual World Re-Emerges (Sarabande Books, 2010), along with The Blonde on the Train (Mayapple Press, 2009) a collection of short stories. She was awarded the 2006 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the Nation magazine for the year's most outstanding book of poetry for Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds and received a 2007 Poetry Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2011 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her first novel, Janet Planet, based on the life of Carlos Castaneda, was published by Mayapple Press in 2011. Her latest collection of poetry, Strange Life,was published by Mayapple in 2015. Since then, her novel, Radiomen (The Permanent Press, 2016) was awarded the John W. Campbell Prize for the Best Book of Science Fiction. Her next novel, The Stargazer's Embassy, was released in July 2017. Her most recent novel, Satellite Street, will be released in October 2019.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story that poses questions about belonging and not belonging, cults, families, gurus, Woodstock, dreaming and awakening and how the past is what we decide it is.
Fun charming and well woven.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to give this a 4.5 but I can't. I love much of this - the characters, Janet's toughness and her suspicion of Georgie. I was particularly struck by her thoughts about the difference between a daughter and a wife: a daughter is supposed to leave; a wife is supposed to stay. But the book ends almost as if it were rushed. Partly because I love harpsichords, I wanted her to stay with that and do what she'd never done: build a community. Instead, she did what she always had done (spoiler alert) and leaves, although this time in the guise of a teacher. So to me the ending was too safe. But I loved the language and the reflections about the 1960s, not that I experienced them, and the changes since. The first book to catch me in a while.