Mourning the passing of the 50's Beat Generation and the 1967 Haight Ashbury Summer of Love ten years earlier Billy Johnson and a small group of 'Leftovers' subsist in a haze of drugs, poverty and hopelessness.
"Beat" is a nostalgic look at the remnants of a time when the spirit of love, tolerance and hope gave way to disappointment and bewilderment that the promise of that time came to nothing.

This work will appeal to those of us that lived it, and the present underground collective of "Off Griders" and freedom thinkers as a guide on how not to pursue a sustainable Revolution. It's a very well written, unassuming novel with authentic characterisations and valid portrayals of that era.

Beat by Richard Lewis Mater is a novel set in San Francisco and follows the life of Billy, a drug taker and seller, part-time t-shirt folder and sometimes writer. Along the way we encounter his acquaintances, roommates and conquests. We start off following Billy around the clubs and café’s of the Bay area and slowly get to know him through his wanderings. We are told that everything takes place in the late 1970’s, but there’s timelessness to the novel, much as there is in real time San Francisco where you get a sense of the 60’s in the Haight and so forth. The setting could have been in the 2000’s and it wouldn’t have changed much.

Billy works in a t-shirt store selling Grateful Dead shirts to Deadheads and skims the cash register and pockets the rest. He also uses the store to sell pills to people and have sex with women. His character is borderline sleazy yet there’s something about him that is compelling. Billy is a reader and wants to write; he admires Kerouac and has read all of Herman Hesse’s work. When his writer roommate suddenly is no longer available as a potential mentor, Billy is left with all of his writings and notebooks which he delves into for inspiration.

Being that the book is called Beat and that the main character is an aspiring writer, one would think that there would be more of a reference to actual writing and the beat generation authors, but apart from a few mentions, there is no real connection. Instead the majority of the story is Billy going from club to club selling Quaaludes, trying to juggle several women at once having surface level conversations with different characters along the way who are pretty much interchangeable and not very likable. The women in this book are basically just there for the men’s amusement in every way. When Billy pull together an article on the club scene he reverts back to just floating around aimlessly and we’re just left there wondering, well what now?!

To the author’s credit, I was compelled to finish the book and I did enjoy reading it. Despite everything it was well written.

“Beat” by Richard Lewis Mater is a captivating read about life in the late ’70s after the liberation period when certain issues are still hush-hush and unaccepted by the general public despite those who are willing to continue pushing the boundaries.

Billy is an aspiring writer and drug dealer who hangs around sexually liberated artists, only to realize things aren’t as liberated as they seem. There is still wide discontent and judgment from the general public toward those who express their sexual freedoms. Caught up in drugs and the generation-forward feeling, Billy doesn’t begin to realize how much unacceptance people face in society until his friends begin overdosing and his roommate commits suicide. Then Billy begins to question his own path in life and the choices he has made.

“Beat” is a melancholic tale full of nostalgia and suffering. Even though the liberation movement has given people the freedom to express themselves, they still suffer from real issues like drug addiction, poverty, mental illness, etc. There are those who are sexually liberated and still face judgment from the general public, who still feel like they can’t be themselves. It’s no wonder there are a lot of characters in this story who feel their lives are spiraling nowhere after a movement that gave them purpose and hope. Many of these characters are lost, trying to figure out who they are and where they see themselves in this new society.

The characters are incredibly diverse and feel realistic. Their voices and personalities really stand out, pulling the reader into the scene and making them care about the characters (even if some of them are pretty terrible). The rivalry between Billy and his friend Manny is particularly well-done and feels believable. Manny has the career and the charm with girls that Billy desires until a few certain events take place and Billy realizes Manny is wasting his talent. If Billy were to have his writer status, he would push the boundaries and write something of substance that would resonate with the public and perhaps change their close-minded perspectives. Overall, I don’t think Billy is an entirely admirable character but there are moments when he does something or says something that really resonates.

As much as I enjoyed this story and think others will, too, I personally didn’t feel like there was much of a plot. It felt like there was a lot of sex and drugs and talk about relationships and the future, but nothing that was solid. Mater is definitely making a statement with this story and I think if I were to spend a bit more time with the story and do a bit more research about San Francisco in the ’70s, I would have a better understanding. From the synopsis, I thought the suicide of Billy’s roommate would be a little more central to the story, along with Billy’s self-realization about the path he is going down in life.

Overall, the story kept me gripped from start to finish. The events taking place in Billy’s own life and that of his friends kept me invested in the tale. For people who want to know what life was like after the liberation period and how people adjusted to a different society, this is definitely a novel worth picking up. Be sure to keep a lookout for “Beat” by Richard Mater Lewis on its expected publication date of January 4th, 2022.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boulevard 55 Books for providing me with an e-arc copy of this story and the opportunity to share my honest opinion in this review.

While I found the story slow, I enjoyed this trip back to an era I remember (or dont in many cases) very well. I found the concept of a father having a stranger go through his sons belongings and trusting him to send them - questionable at best, and this kind of dodged me off and on through the book. But over all, it was a good, nostalgic read.