Flee the Angry Strangers
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Book Overview
Diane Lattimer is an eighteen-year-old single mother struggling with the separation from her infant son who has been sent to live with a foster family in Long Island. Strapped with guilt, Diane searches for redemption in souls as lost as her own, in the jazz-and drug-fueled hipsters of Greenwich Village. Finding solace only in one-night stands and an increasing dependence on drugs, Diane spirals into a world of violence and drug abuse, leaving her destitute and addicted to heroin. Struggling to stave off the addiction, Diane searches for help from the various people who move in and out of her life. Diane's mother tells her daughter she must reject the sins of the Village and turn to God; Dincher, the tough, young junkie, who dreams of some day playing horn alongside Louis Armstrong; Joe Letrigo, the southern gentleman who can't forget Diane's ungainly reputation; and Carter Webb, the husband of Diane's gravely ill sister, Edna, and possibly the only person who can truly save Diane. Years before its time in dealing seriously with topics like drug abuse, women's liberation, and sexual freedom, Flee the Angry Strangers is the first Beat novel and a true rediscovered classic.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1560255714
ISBN13:9781560255710
Release Date:November 2003
Publisher:Thunder's Mouth Press
Length:480 Pages
Weight:1.28 lbs.
Dimensions:1.3" x 5.5" x 8.2"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
A hard look through a time window
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
The 1950's were not all Fonzi and his friends. I read "Flee The Angry Strangers" in 1956. It was an unsettling look at the dark side of the 50's, that rang true then, and is one of the few novels that I have not forgotten over time. I saw parallels between some of the characters, and friends from high school and the Korean war. The only note that did not ring true was Joe Dinch's (the "Dincher's") veneration of Louis Armstrong. Some of us listened to Armstrong in Pasadena. He was hyped as the greatest jazz trumpeter of all time. We compared him to Howard McGhee's playing at JATP concerts, Chet Baker with Gerry Mulligan and with his own group, and Shorty Rogers and Rolf Ericsson at the Lighthouse, and couldn't understand all the adulation Armstrong seemed to get from old critics. Growing older has brought a greater appreciation of Mozart and Bix Beiderbecke, but, except for a few old Hot Five and Hot Seven sides, not Armstrong. "Flee The Angry Strangers" is worth reading. It is a classic, in the sense that it was ahead of its time, and has the timeless quality to outlive it.
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