'Hippies' fizzles out

Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming / We're finally on our own / This summer I hear the drumming / Four dead in Ohio."\nWhat may strike students today most about Kent State University are the lyrics to "Ohio," that folksy cut by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young mourning the four dead students of the May anti-Vietnam demonstration in 1970. It was a time of confusion, long hair, arguments with parents, political do-good activism and love -- or so says the new college-student-geared novel "Hippies." \nAcross the country in 1969-70, 20-somethings were shipping out to Vietnam, protesting the violent war and discovering life. Author Peter Jedick spins back to his time as a student at Kent State to depict the sometimes groovy, sometimes foretelling, school year before hell broke loose at Kent State.\nYou are not supposed to be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can this time. Swirly letters top an illustration of a guy with long hair and stoner half-closed eyes. Behind him is an empty keg and house with a pipe and a girl shown in the windows. Believe it or not, main character Matt Kubik and his roommates light up, throw a party and obsess about girls.\nThis book isn't very productive reading, but it is amusing enough. It starts at the beginning of Kubik's senior year and runs to the time he hears the first shots in May. Major plot lines include his attraction to ex-girlfriend Michelle (who now lives on the other side of his duplex), his roommates' adventures with even more girls and cops and the campus' reaction to Vietnam. The material isn't weighty, but it keeps readers interested out of mild amusement. Readers can gain a generalization of what was going through the minds of protesters. \n"Hippies" displays a few of the lesser-talked-about cultural aspects of the war well. Kubik is torn between growing out his beard or staying clean shaven -- due to the reaction he draws from adults (sort of a "You dirty hippie" glare). He's both hailed as cool and labeled a troublemaker just for wearing an old army jacket. Kubik's experiences show how on-edge the younger and older generations are when it comes to dealing with each other. He also shows the growing consciousness of a young man who feels responsible for his country and his actions, even if it seems like much of the world is against him. \nIt is easy to sense the growing tenseness of the Kent State campus with Jedick's descriptions of the increasing protests and his personal depression and fear after the draft lottery. He shows the protests in images of narrowed brows on the face of anti-war students and their opponents.\nThough the book is designed to show what lead to the bullets of May 4,1970, it seems odd that the plot stops just as the pop of ammunition is heard. It is as if the book is building momentum to this point, then just fizzles without a resolution. It seems as if the author's assumption is that everyone knows exactly what happened that day and what students were feeling when this might not be the case.\n Overall, "Hippies" is a mildly entertaining and mildly educational book. Though readers may be drawn to finish it, it isn't time or money well spent.