Song of the Eclectic Tambourine

Song of the Eclectic Tambourine begins in 1968 when Marc Amati falls in love with two young women as disparate as the political climate of the times. Lilly Garrett is a courageous, self-styled flower child committed to non-violence, ending the Vietnam War, and social justice, while Mary Belinda is wealthy, talented, and determined to achieve the fame and stardom her mother was cheated by McCarthyism and Hollywood sexism. What Marc learns from, and because of, both women will stay with him his whole life and help him deal with the challenges he and his generation face: humanity versus expediency, compassion versus profit, and self-interest versus altruism. For Marc, it is a coming of age in stages. Both women face their own ordeals as they attempt to succeed in a hostile society - Mary being a strong-willed woman in the recording industry, and Lilly in a series of social and political endeavors. Marc's story is an ironic, irreverent, and critical look at the past and its effect on the present.