Andrew Smith's Reviews > A Thousand Steps

Laguna Beach, in Southern California, is an enticing place. I spent a few days there at the end of a long road trip a few years back and was enchanted by its laid back atmosphere and it’s beautiful beaches and coastline. But what I didn’t know is that in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s this small coastal city was the epicentre of America’s drug trafficking surge. A group calling themselves The Brotherhood of Eternal Love based themselves here, their headquarters being a shop on the Coast Highway called Mystic Arts World. The self-declared ‘prophet’ of psychedelic drugs at that time was a psychologist and writer called Timothy Leary and he was famously arrested for possession of marijuana at Laguna in 1968.

Jefferson T. Parker, a long-time resident of the city, uses the above as the background to his story and incorporates much of this history into his tale. It’s told from the perspective of Matt, a sixteen year old boy who lives with his drug taking mother and elder sister, Jazz, in a cheap and draughty rented house. Matt’s dad is long gone, he ran off with another woman some six years ago and now keeps in touch only through occasional phone calls. Matt’s brother is a soldier – a tunnel rat - fighting in Vietnam, he’s due to return soon but the letters Matt receives tell of his brother’s concern that his luck might run out before that date arrives. And then one night Jazz fails to return home.

There had been a row between Jazz and her mother and it’s possible that she has just hunkered down somewhere and will return within the next day or so. But this doesn’t happen and as days pass Matt becomes increasingly worried about the fate of his sister - this being exacerbated by the body of another girl of similar age being discovered on the beach one morning. So this story is about Matt’s quest to find his sister, but it’s also about his own development – both physically and emotionally – growing up amongst the turbulent events associated with this time and this place.

Matt is central to everything here, when he’s not looking for his sister he’s fishing to provide food for himself and his family or he’s completing an energy sapping paper round, delivering to houses in the seaside resort and the surrounding hills. His wages supplement his mother’s scant income as a waitress in a local restaurant and his occasional task of delivering of books and other paraphernalia for the folk at Mystical Arts World provide a small amount of additional cash. Even so, his mother's drug habit ensures that there's barely enough money to pay the rent and food is in short supply It’s all clearly a struggle and I quickly found myself rooting for Matt and those close to him.

This is a book I found hard to put down. Though the action is somewhat drawn out and the plot perhaps a little fanciful, the vibe it gives off really drew me in. It’s a heart-warming and sometimes gripping tale of love and endeavour. Parker paints brilliant pictures of the Laguna of the 1960’s and provides a good cast of characters to flesh out the story. Moreover, he made me care about the fate of Matt and his family. It’s a book I was disappointed to finish, something that's happened far too seldomly of late and which causes me set aside any minor misgivings I might have had along the way. It's four and a half stars for me, rounded up to five.

My thanks to McMillan-Tor/Forge for supplying a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.