In this sequel to
Keep This Quiet! Margaret relocates to Morocco with her exotic, fascinating, unstable Belgian poet husband, Jan Mensaert. Living in villages, she experiences cooking on charcoal and shopping for fresh groceries daily with a basket in open air markets. But the main focus is on her encounters with the three male protagonists, "outlaw" authors one and all, brilliantly creative and with the personalities that match. In once-yearly trips to the Statets, she re-energizes on a diet of one-liner advice, deeply digested and wise, from genius-poet Milton Klonsky. This, she reports to the reader, magically as if her mind were a tape recorder. She also gets Gonzo updates from Hunter Thompson - two relationships that never lose their hold or significance, even necessity. From Morocco, to Belgium, to Switzerland, and the US, Margaret pits wits with - learns from - and grows through these close - sometimes romantic - relationships with men who exemplify authenticity. At one point, trying desperately to find her, Hunter writes, "Dear Margaret, Where are you and why? I've lost track completely. My last definite word was from a toilet-hole in Algiers." He wants her to work on his next manuscript. This is 1971. Moving from 1970 (Belgium/a Cairo honeymoon) to 1986 (the Jung Institute Zurich), the book ends up fittingly at Hunter's Owl Farm. Where else could the last two chapters take place? There, she reintroduces herself to Hunter. In fine form, he is trying to take the romance to the next level.
Actually, they both are intent on it.
REVIEWS:"A passionately written memoir that doesn't sit around being fit and proper and straight laced . . . As a key to the lives of these three writers it is idiosyncratic and in age where blandness is the norm, it is a pleasure to go on her journey and find out a little about what made these men tick and what drove her to them "- Eric Jacobs -
Beat Scene print magazine (UK) # 70
"Margaret A. Harrell has done it again. In her brutally compassionately explicitly honest second autobiography
KEEP THIS QUIET TOO! Harrell manages to repeatedly pull the rug out from under the reader. She travels from North Carolina to New York City to Morocco to Belgium to India to Switzerland to Owl Farm, and many other places,...in search of her self. From depth psychology to dream analysis to hangoutologies to ecstatic love making to out of body astral travels to spirit guides, adventures and misadventures, she is guided and guides herself ever homeward to her own heart and soul. Margaret A. Harrell's new, second, autobiography, like volume one, is a masterpiece." - Outlaw Poet Ron Whitehead
“I’m not crazier than you,” Harrell reports once saying to her friend Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson’s response: “No, but you talk crazier.” That exchange, recounted in an introductory author’s note, kicks off the second in a series of memoirs (after Keep This Quiet!) by Harrell that examine her relationship with three fascinating men of letter ...
"With an eye for surprising detail, Harrell conjures a charged and vivid milieu, even as the story she tells is often painful. ... Readers fascinated by these men, her world, and numerology and transcendentalism will find themselves on a journey with grand destinations throughout the globe and within the author’s consciousness." - BookLife Review
"
Keep THIS Quiet Too! is a real-life saga of living and learning with eyes and ears open. At times adventurous, at times sensual,
Keep This Quiet Too! hinges upon the complexities of human relationships, especially the challenges posed by the heart-wrenching feelings of love that may or may not be fully requited. Highly recommended." -
Midwest Book Review"An honest and unflinching examination of the choices we make." -
San Francisco Book ReviewMargaret Harrell is the author of "Keep This Quiet!" and eight books in the "Love in Transition: Voyage of Ulysses—Letters to Penelope" nonfiction series, including "Toward a Philosophy of Perception." Also, "Marking Time with Faulkner." She copy edited Hunter Thompson’s first book, "Hell’s Angels." HST acknowledged her in "Gonzo Letters" 2. in 2011, "Keep This Quiet!" was published to highly receptive reviews. She is also an editor, cloud photographer, and light-body teacher, mentoring people who want to maximize their potential.
