Contest Time!

Since one item in the news last week was an updated picture of Charles Manson, I thought this would be the perfect time to start this contest. Thanks to Valerie at Hatchette Books, I have five copies of Sway to give away.

Sway by Zachary Lazar

Three dramatic and emblematic stories intertwine in Zachary Lazar's extraordinary new 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 violence. Connecting all the stories in this novel is Bobby Beausoleil, a beautiful California boy who appeared in an Anger film and eventually joined the Manson "family."

With great artistry, Lazar weaves scenes from these real lives together into a true but heightened reality, making superstars human, giving demons reality, and restoring mythic events to the scale of daily life.


"One hypnotic tone poem.... It is not the now-historic acts of violence that make Sway so riveting, but its vivid character portraits and decadent, muzzy atmosphere, all rendered with the heightened sensory awareness associated with drugs and paranoia.

The near miniaturist precision with which he describes Keith Richards's attempts to master his guitar, Brian Jones's acid trips and Anger's obsessive desire for Beausoleil bring this large-scale tableau into stunning relief." --Liz Brown, Time Out New York

Reading Group Guide available

How to enter:
1. One entry for leaving me a comment, with an email address, giving your favorite Rolling Stones song (or saying you don't have one)
2. One entry for following my blog or subscribing to it. Leave me a comment telling me you did so, or that you already do.
3. One entry for blogging about this contest, and leaving me a comment with a link to your post.
4. One entry for everyone who enters, and tells me you sent them.

Contest will run through April 13. Restricted to US and Canada, and no PO Boxes. Good luck to all!