Enlightenment and the Death of Michael Mouse

Tommy Spitz, the anti-hero of Sawdust Caesar fame is back! On the run from murderous London thugs and the police after a vicious assault on a stranger, he questions his life and values after meeting with a variety of travellers during an epic pilgrimage from the grimy streets of London to the grimier streets of Istanbul, Teheran, Kabul and Karachi.

Ever the London Jack-the-lad at heart, he discards his mohair suit for the more ragged apparel of the seasoned traveller, picks up a copy of the Bhagavadgita, and heads east in his search for truth. Of course, nothing comes easy to the true pilgrim, and before he realises what is happening he is once again caught up in the underworld machinations of his old London buddy, Frankie, with whom he has decided to travel.

Escaping from a nightmare of intrigue in Istanbul he heads on east alone in search of this elusive thing called Enlightenment and discovers far more than he dreamy possible, a world way beyond the hashish dens and drug culture of the hippy overland traveller still today capturing the fertile collective imagination of millions worldwide. Here we experience Iran in turmoil years before the revolution; Afghanistan as a haven to young travellers in the years before Soviet and US intervention; and Pakistan as few of us might imagine.

On the beach in Karachi, Tommy at last finds his guru, but the message he receives from this naked old man is one that he far from expects and such is the shock to his system that his world collapses. Saved by a timely journey back to Europe on a Greek cargo ship, he once again, against all calculations and plans, finds himself in Istanbul, where he has to face the consequences of his relationship with Frankie and the Turkish mobsters with whom he had earlier been embroiled.

Synopsis

Michael Mouse of the title is a guy who walks into an off-manor pub and steps out of line with two of the local boys. After a bit of wordplay the boys follow him out of the pub and waylay him to administer a beating. No big deal. Par for the course in London.

Tommy Spitz (one of the two local boys) and Frankie, disillusioned with England, set out to bum around Europe. But by the time they get to Turkey, they realise that travelling together is becoming increasingly difficult as their individual temperaments are entirely different: Tommy wants to leave behind his old ways, but Frankie seems to be dragging his along with him. And Tommy is increasingly haunted, trying to come to terms with the beating he helped administer to Michael Mouse, wondering if the poor guy is dead or alive. Taking himself off to a remote beach in southern Turkey, he tries in his solitude to understand where he is coming from, but fails to find any 'enlightenment' – a term being increasingly used by his hip peers. Returning to Istanbul, he rescues Nilufer, a beautiful young girl, from the clutches of Mustafa, a Turkish pimp, and Frankie who is working for him, and flees with her after stealing a lookalike American girl's passport, to Germany where he leaves her with a friend before going on back to England. After a spell of casual work and Philosophy and Sociology at night-school, he gives up and sets out once again for India, Bhagavadgita in hand, intent on finding a guru who might teach him the 'truth' about life.

But back in Istanbul, Mustafa is on his trail, demanding payment for Nilufer, telling him that as Frankie has also run out on him, Tommy is bound to repay the debt. Denying all knowledge of Nilufer Tommy sets off East in midwinter, overland to Pakistan, staying in Iran and Afghanistan en-route, in hotels used by seasoned overlanders and hard-line members of the world nomadic scene. For the first time he tries hashish and is impressed. In Kabul he is told of his previous incarnations by a girl mystic, and soon after becomes very ill. Partly-recovered, he continues on through the Khyber pass into Pakistan where, still weak, he decides to head down towards Karachi and the warm Arabian Sea beaches. There, he books into a cheap hotel, exchanges his watch for a kilo of hash, and decides to attempt once again to get to the route of his being. Outside on the streets he learns of an old guru who lives in a temple on the beach and makes his way there to see him. But the reactions and answers he gets from the wise man are not only shocking, but to a naïve Tommy, almost incomprehensible. Dazed, he pays his hotel bill with the last of his money, and quits Karachi, jumping a lift on a tramp steamer back to Europe. There, instead of going home to recuperate, he returns to Germany to sell the hashish he has brought with him and discovers through Nilufer that Frankie is being held in Istanbul by Mustafa.

Once again in Istanbul, Tommy devises a plan to free Frankie who is working against his will for Mustafa: he borrows a small bottle of Lysergic acid and administers it to the Turk and his minders, but is accidentally also spiked by Frankie. The two of them escape in different directions, Tommy on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and each eventually makes it back to England.

Tommy meets Frankie one night in a pub. Frankie has a new job and a new girlfriend (the fiancée of his boss) and says he can get Tommy a job at the same place, arranging for him to meet his boss the following day. When Tommy gets there he is mortified to discover that Frankie's new boss is none other than Michael mouse. But he seems not to recognise the changed young traveller, his hair having grown long in keeping with the style of the times…

Little does Tommy realise that he has.

Enlightenment and the Death of Michael Mouse at Amazon