Ash Valley is the stunning conclusion of Guy Maynard's three-volume set of autobiographical novels about the life of a college radical, 1969-72. In this finale, Ben and his new wife Sarah and their cohort of idealistic Boston University hippie/longhair/freak/stoner/dropouts head to Oregon to found a peaceful farming commune. They dream of ending capitalism, racism, and war, and of being a model society for the future. The commune struggles, but the lessons learned are dramatic, deep, mature, and permanent. Maynard's writing throughout is vivid and authentic, like the daily journal of a great writer witnessing hard times with his eyes and heart wide open. The three volumes together have an epic sweep, moving from youth to adulthood, from War to Peace, with the narrative voice shifting from corrosively angry to bedazzled and loved. Ah, life! What a great trip.

James W. Earl, Professor of Literature, University of Oregon

Ash Valley is an honest and complex book and one that will serve as a worthy reminder of a long-gone time when "weirdos" and "hairy Freaks" seeking to create a revolutionary new way to live fled the troubled cities for rural America in droves while both alarming and amusing their puzzled settled neighbors in the process.

-Robert Leo Heilman, Author of Overstory: Zero-Real Life in Timber Country