The era known as "the sixties," covering the time span from the emergence of the "Beat Generation" to the conclusion of the debacle in Vietnam, is already being mythologized and demonized as a special period in American history. Its depiction in literature and film, however, has been largely inadequate, often a vehicle for manipulators and hustlers or the setting for shallow, cliche-ridden moralizing. The books which will define and crystalize that particular era's unique perceptual consciousness probably still have not been written, but there is one book which superbly captures the ethos of the urban, hippie/drop-out subculture of the late 1960s. Written with the intense, total involvement of an insider and the clear perspective of a sympathetic but wary observer The Fan Man is an authentic recreation of an important, often misunderstood aspect of American life.

The Lower East Side of Manhattan, somewhat optimistically (and...