With Kennedy in the Land of the Dead: A Novel of the 1960s

With Kennedy in the Land of the Dead begins on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Gilbert Stone, a Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Ethiopia returns home shattered and lost in the shadow of his hero.The intervening years tell the story of Stone’s struggle integrating his experience of the Peace Corps and the trauma of Kennedy’s death. His new life as a graduate student in San Francisco explodes into the 1960’s hippie movement. Stone finds himself losing his identity as a member of a commune, alienated from his former life and finally living on the streets of the Haight Ashbury.His battle with drugs, insanity and the anti-Vietnam war protests casts light on the baby boomer transformation into hippies and flower children. From the first dances at the Fillmore to the Human Be-in at Golden Gate Park, Stone’s struggle reflects cultural changes for generations to come.The novel ends on the day Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.