Royal Oak author's debut novel set in 1967 Detroit
"Summer on Fire" by Royal Oak author Peter Werbe (Black and Red Books, $15.95) is a highly unusual literary experience.
Subtitled "A Novel of Detroit," it focuses on diverse memorable events that take place in a large metropolis.
Werbe's entertaining paperback is a debut novel based on reality.
It fictionally explores a myriad of occurrences set in a pivotal time of the city: six hot weeks in 1967.
Dealing with the revolutionary and radical counterculture, it showcases local responses to worldwide events - and the unexpected outcome.
The first chapter introduces Paul and Michelle Ross, a married couple in their late 20s, who are producing "The Fifth Estate," a radical underground newspaper.
With offices near the campus of Wayne State University, the journalists are in the heat of the counterculture.
They are advocating and promoting an anti-war protest movement against American involvement in Vietnam.
Many vignettes explore Detroit's music scene, especially the infamous Grande Ballroom, which hosted national and local rock-and-roll bands.
Performers there included the MC5, Tim Buckley, and Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin.
Part of the novel, told in flashback, is set on the campus of Michigan State University, where a controversial professor introduces Paul to an assortment of radical ideologies.
Werbe doesn't sidestep any issues - his unusual, well-researched novel deals with riots, looting, racism, frustration, anger, despicable Michigan Army National Guard behavior and the deadly Algiers Motel incident.
Real-life characters abound, including political activist John Sinclair and Russ Gibb, owner of the Grande Ballroom.
A thinly-veiled Harvey Ovshinsky appears as Sidney, who actually founded "The Fifth Estate" newspaper when he was 17.
"Summer on Fire" is a cool, thought-provoking literary journey providing uncommon, revealing insights into revolutionary and countercultural attitudes of the 1960s.
More information is available at www.blackandred.org; the author can be contacted at pwerbe@gmail.com.
Ray Walsh, owner of East Lansing's Curious Book Shop, has been reviewing Michigan books and crime novels since 1987. He grew up in Northwest Detroit and went to concerts at the Grande Ballroom. His email address is raywalsh@voyager.net.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Summer on Fire by Peter Werbe set in 1967 Detroit.
