BOOKS

RINGOLEVIO: A LIFE PLAYED FOR KEEPS by Emmett Grogan Little, Brown

I wish Ringolevio were as simple as those who make of it mere counter-cultural history think it is.

It�s not only that both Ringolevio and Emmett Grogan are both far more complex and far less pretentious than mere history (which they are) — seeing Ringolevio as just another writing-myaut obiogr a phy-to-get-the-advance-so-Ican-buy-aVW-camper-and-head-for-thehills is to refuse, also, to own up. And that is precisely what Ringolevio is about: owning up.

Grogan is the mirror-image of Turner in Performance. He sees his indentity change (s) not as vehicles for grand-stand or compulsion, but as necessary, integral, healthy methods of survival and sanity in the later twentieth century. Rather than identity crisis, Grogan opts for a new, critical identity.