Fiction Review

Electric Honey
by Sam Love
ISBN-10: 141963013X
Review by Heather Froeschl

America sure is a victim of its politics. Every generation is affected in various ways by the one before them and the one that follows, and just as affected by the people in power and those who wish to be. Never was this more apparent in our history than in the turbulent 60's. In Sam Love's novel, "Electric Honey," we see two generations in the midst of controversy and change, and laugh at the craziness of it all.

Peach discovers her mother's journals as she's cleaning out the old house. Now that Peach is a great grandmother, looking back on her college days through her own mother's words turns out to be an eye opening experience. Just reading about her mother's sex life would be shocking enough but Peach discovers more about herself and who she was back then through her look back in time. It was the early days of the Anti-Communist League and Peach's mom worked for the organization. Mom also dated Colonel Billy, the head of the group. The Colonel had some strong ideas about things like God and Country and watch out if you didn't agree with him. Every hippie was a communist and communists were the plague of the world out to brainwash the youth of America.

Some students at Peach's college decided to stir things up a bit, starting with a letter to the college's newspaper editor in which Sidney Bunch refers to the Viet Cong as true freedom fighters. Colonel Billy decides that this is the beginning of an all out war on American values. When the students interrupt a speech the Colonel is making by breaking into the PA system, and again when they drive a peace float, in the name of Sidney Bunch, through the Christmas parade, it is viewed as an attack instead of merely an example of freedom of speech. The Colonel is just itching for a cause to act on his beliefs and when things heat up he even wants to ask the President to begin a true war (never mind that he already has a volunteer army patrolling the beaches watching for Commie subs.).

Just how involved is Peach of all of this? Quite. She's also involved in the wilder side of the 60's - Mardi Gras partying, peaceful rebellion, sex, marijuana, and this sweet substance known as Electric Honey. What she doesn't realize then is how into the moment her own mother is.

This book is a trip in itself. While I shudder to imagine the world that Peach lives in as she finds her mother's journals, a world where evolution is no longer taught in her great granddaughter's school, and the separation of church and state no longer exists, the book clearly demonstrates what a few in power can instigate - reminding us that we should all be more involved in politics rather than sitting idly by. The story is well told through the minds of two women who really aren't all that different after all. An entertaining and interesting read, I highly enjoyed "Electric Honey."