Review: Ginny Good: A Mostly True Story

Ginny Good: A Mostly True Story by Gerard Jones

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I read about this book on the Manson Blog. Manson has said, "Where does the garbage go? As we have tins and garbage alongside the road, and oil slicks in the water, so you have people, and I am one of your garbage people." Part of my interest there is me is why and how a conglomeration of discarded people became this family of garbage people. I thought this book ostensibly a biography of Virginia "Ginny" Good, the older sister of Sandra Good would have such info. Also, the story starts close to home for me in Royal Oak, MI.

Well, all about the Manson bit can be gleaned from this quote:

here's part of that letter I mentioned earlier, the one that talks about some of Sandy's "adventures" with the so-called Manson Family:


"Sandy is a total hippie who was living with the Beach Boys in Malibu and now is with prospectors in the desert teaching Dean Martin's daughter how to lose her ego. They cluck their tongues about what bad shape Mia Farrow and Nanci Sinatra's heads are in, altho Miss Farrow gave away her clothes and is living ascetically, 'she just can't give up her image.' I would certainly like to see my sister after reading her letters. She hikes barefoot in the desert forever, and she used to deride my mystical propensities. She is an Aquarian—Pisces cusp—which goes right along with what she is now doing. An absolutely rebellious, unconventional mystic. I sort of envy her."


All I personally remember about Sandy is that she used to work as a sales clerk at the Emporium on Market Street. She sold scarves and plastic headbands and was a lot less charismatic than Ginny—less compelling, more drab. That was before she shaved herself bald, carved a swastika into her forehead and hung out with the rest of the Manson chicks chanting spooky stuff outside the Hall of Justice in L.A., and way before she and Squeaky set up their own website.

More name-dropping comes from the dating and frolicking with Donna McKechnie who, along with Melanie completes a long, drawn-out lover's triangle that includes Ginny. As the introduction states, "...basically, the book’s about four people—Elliot Felton, Virginia Good, Melanie and me—and
what we all tried to do with each other..." As such, the author mostly focuses on sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. The audiobook is heavily seasoned with song and spoken word samples to festoon a journey that documents the birth and death of the hippie lifestyle. Ginny is the prototype hippie, Melanie the dark side of peace & love through heroin addiction and Elliot is the damaged Vietnam vet. Jones is not out to document history. This is largely a personal memoir delivered with a I-don't-care-what-you-think attitude.



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