Sway

by Zachary Lazar

Book Overview

Three dramatic and emblematic stories intertwine in Zachary Lazar's extraordinary novel, Sway -- the early days of the Rolling Stones, including the romantic triangle of Brian Jones, Anita Pallenberg, and Keith Richards; the life of avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger; and the community of Charles Manson and his followers. Lazar illuminates an hour in American history when rapture found its roots in idolatrous figures and led to unprovoked and inexplicable...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316113115
• ISBN13: 9780316113113
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

wonderful read

Thought this would be a stinker, but I loved it. Wonderfully inventive and compelling. Lazar made me interested in the Rolling Stones. His sections on Anger are beautiful.

Lazar uses recognized names of real people, and reference to authentic or reported incidents taken f

Sway: is a descriptive work focused upon what became recognized as the counter culture of sex, music, drugs, together with atypical behaviors that was prevalent in the United States during the late 1960s. Author Lazar interweaves a made-up, three branched storyline interlacing independent, separate, episodes relating to the life of ultramodern avant-garde film-maker filmmaker Kenneth Anger; the early days of the Rolling Stones and actions of The Charles Manson family. Lazar uses recognized names of real people, and reference to authentic or reported incidents taken from the era. These incidents involving The Stones, Manson Family and Anger are interwoven to create his novel. Bobby Beausoleil of the Manson Family is used as criterion figure to bring together these three, unrelated, groups. The account begins in 1969 with Bobby and Charlie going from the ranch into town where they enter a dwelling. And in 1962, on Edith Grove, a dilapidated street in London is the date in the following chapter beginning with The Stones, Brian, Mick, and Keith playing music. Chapter to chapter the novelist moves the reader in a dance from one fictionalized incident to the next fictionalized event, with all focusing around characters bearing the names of well known personages during the 1960s. From the outset the Author assures the reader, 'this is a work of fiction.' He goes on to assert that the book is an appraisal of how a hodgepodge of public lives were detached from the sphere of fact and have become a kind of contemporary folk lore. While the players listed on the pages of the book may bear the given names of the actual people they name, their comings and goings, actions and interactions if any, have been imagined by the author and should be considered as products of that imagination. The sway, or influence, the book is trying to elucidate is exposed as the control that results from having a camera trained on an actor and how that action causes the actor to consider himself significant and to be a star at least in his/her own mind, whether anyone ever sees the film or not is unimportant. The significance comes from simply being filmed. Again, the sway, or influence, is also seen in the affect that Charles Manson had on the easily influenced young men and women who trailed along with him. That power continued even if it meant murder and mayhem. And finally writer Lazar presents the rock star way of life, which included the music and drugs, and the difficulty of rightness or wrongness that a person can have over the behavior of others during specific times or places which are filled with intense social renovation. Writer Lazar set out to fictionalize and somehow interweave the dissimilar incidents which were 1. the short-term, turbulent climb and the return to relative inconsequentiality of intense filmmaker, Kenneth Anger; 2. the cyclonic rise to the top of the recording world by the Rolling Stones; and, 3. the misfortune centered around the Tate-LaBia

Like nothing you've ever read before

"Sway" is amazing. It is an assault on the senses, with swirling visuals and throbbing music. The writing is full of beautiful, unusual, shocking descriptions. Through Lazar's artistry, public figures become fictional characters. Even with all we know about Mick, Keith, Brian (Jones), Kenneth Anger and Charlie (Manson), the book convincingly creates new personas for them. The dread of the scenes with Manson, the aching search of Anger's narrative, and the violence and tumult of the Rolling Stones are all new discoveries for the reader. This book literally rocks.

just imagination

Why imagine the 60's? Because it makes a lot more sense than trying to define or analyze them. This was the decade that imagined itself into being and still imagines us today: "Sway" meets it on its own terms. Lazar's imagination is disciplined, precise, a living thing. His evocation of the entwined lives of the Stones, Kenneth Anger, and a Manson accomplice is a riveting read. If you've ever wondered about how those dingy, brilliant boys channeled Delta blues in sub-middle class mid-Atlantic Home Counties accents and put the edge on a generation, read this book. Lazar has wondered too and he's really good at it.

its just this evil life that's got you in its sway

this book is amazing. why not just go into your room, put on 'exile on main st', and 'sticky fingers' while paging through 'hollywood babylon' with 'helter skelter' on dvd? because you will just get the same old thing, the incredible yet now hopelessly familiar cultural artifacts of the '60's choked with history. this book strips the sense of future from these now famous or infamous people and reading it you sense the ordinary, even pathetic aspects of the characters who are now in our pantheon of gods. the economic and social forces of the '60's and their implications are endlessly discussed, yet the nature of humanity, the individual odd isolated person is the true actor of all times and of this book. lazar lets those real individuals speak for themselves in a way not possible in real life. the keith richards of 1964 has been completely obliterated by the one whose autobiography is coming out soon (which i am eager to read but for other reasons!). one thing we should have learned from history by now is that while we never truly learn from it, we do find some eras are more interesting to wallow in. i can't think of many more interesting than this.