Book Review: “Dirty Hippies” by Scott Paulsen

Dirty Hippies by Scott Paulsen was recommended to me by a friend and former colleague of the author Dennis Benson. Author Scott Paulsen has spent most of his working life as a radio personality in the Pittsburgh, PA area, but he’s also written several books which I can’t seem to find online. He’s also the author of a daily column about LPs which you can find by checking him out on Facebook.

Dirty Hippies is a fictional story set in Chester, West Virginia in 1974 and is built around the premise that a large entertainment company that owns the local horse track has built an amphitheater in their little town. The problems arise when they schedule a large rock music festival with four bands that summer. The old town folk spend their summer worrying about their small town being invade by….you guessed it…dirty hippies, while the younger residents look forward to seeing their favorite bands when they come to town.

This book is both funny and touching at the same time, but I do wonder how much of it is actually fiction and how much is based on the author’s real life. Scott Paulsen is originally from Chester, West Virgina and was formerly a dishwasher at Waterford Inn just like one of the main characters Jay Mastro. A lot of the characters seem very familiar as if the author pulled them from life experiences, while at the same time creating a his own personal childhood dream experience of girls, guitars and rock concerts. And in case you’re wondering…yes, the word ‘Beatles’ does appear in this book!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this 444 page self-published book, but it really could have used one more set of eyes to scan over it for typos before taking it to print. As a publicist, it’s one of my pet peeves to see a book rushed to print before it’s ready, when one more day and one more edit could have made it right. And even though I doled out that $20 for the paperback, I do think it was a bit pricey and would probably recommend that if you’re interested in reading this fine book, you get the e-book at just $9.99. But since I don’t base my reviews on price, but on content…

I rate this book, 3 out of 4 Beetles!