Mother American Night

In his entertainingly unruly memoir, the late Barlow (1947–2018) takes stock of his maverick life as a cattle rancher, counterculture spokesman, and songwriter for the Grateful Dead. Scion of a prominent Wyoming ranching family, Barlow had an independent streak that served him well in the tumult of the 1960s counterculture. Encounters with Timothy Leary and psychedelics diverted him to India, the Summer of Love in San Francisco, and a musical partnership with fellow prep school misfit Bob Weir. In 1978, he got involved in local politics after moving back to the family ranch, and eventually became the campaign coordinator for Dick Cheney’s successful 1978 run for Congress. Self-aware and self-aggrandizing, dynamic and indolent, Barlow embodies the triumphs and failures of his baby boomer cohort. Shrewd insights into Leary and Jerry Garcia (whom he almost persuaded to do a photo shoot with President George H.W. Bush) mingle indiscriminately with observations of JFK Jr., Daryl Hannah, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and other celebrities. Barlow, however, barely touches on his family life: his wife and three daughters rate no more ink than his insistence that the administration and the radicals at Wesleyan thought he was cool. Barlow’s blend of charisma, ability, and dissipation makes for a great narrative from a complex public figure. (May)