FOOL ME ONCE
A novel by Bill Pieper
Pacific Slope Press, 2003 (ISBN 097402150-4)

Everything–attitudes, politics, culture–changes as the US copes with a shattering national tragedy and a Texan appointed to the Presidency promotes war of unknown dimensions in a far-away land. Sounds like 2002? No, 1964, and young army reservist Will Perry’s life in post-beat, pre-flower child San Francisco is turned upside down.

His lover Sheila shows one path through this maze and Mara, his daring North Beach neighbor, another, while abortion-activist Wendy Yoshima and housewife Rhonda Lewis pursue paths of their own. Meanwhile, among Will’s army friends, the self-styled Anti-Bullshit Squad, Armando and Lew run a high-stakes scam on the army and on the idealistic Herbie. If Will and Booker are cynically manipulated in the process, too bad.

In the Sacramento area, Fool Me Once is available at The Book Collector, Tower Watt and Tower Broadway, CSUS Bookstore, Borders - Fair Oaks Blvd., The Avid Reader — Davis, and on BN or Amazon .com

REVIEWS AND ENDORSEMENTS

Winner of the 2003-2004 Best Fiction/Drama Book Award
Sacramento Publishers and
Authors Association

"Bill Pieper has managed the feat of mixing fact and fiction in a completely engrossing, fun, and even enlightening way... I was particularly impressed by the skill with which the author weaves in real people, real events, and the genuine mood of the City..."
Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr.
City of San Francisco

"This vivid kaleidoscope... recaptures the nonstop sexual energy, the MASH-like intrigues of the civilian army, and the cultural, political epicenter of a generation."
William Carpenter
Author of The Wooden Nickel

"If Jack Kerouac met Janis Joplin in North Beach they would both be carrying copies of Bill Pieper’s Fool Me Once... A fun book with wonderful characters and a serious story..."
Howard DeWitt
North Beach Beat

"...a story of common occurrences in uncommon times... and that’s what makes reading this novel such a blast... one that will stick with you long after the last page..."
D. Brunell
Fearless Reviews, Berkeley

"... a coming-of-age tale... just after President Kennedy’s assassination. The characters... in- clude... Joan Baez, Willie Brown and newspaper columnist Herb Caen."
Dixie Reid
Sacramento Bee

"It’s very real. A wonderful collection of people... so mixed... and so successfully drawn... Bad soldiers often tell good stories."
Denny Smithson
KPFA Radio, Berkeley