Backwards Over Part 1: Rufus Has Been on the Lam

Professor Joe Lewis finds he has more in common with 1960s war-protesting students than with his buttoned-down colleagues. Dropping out in his late-thirties, he joins the Austin hippie scene and then becomes the dishwasher in a vegetarian restaurant in Harvard Square.

Two tales unfold in the trilogy Backwards Over, one following Joe in real time, the other as he ruminates on his past. Scenes range from a faculty party that convinces him that academe is not for him to a juke joint in a cotton field. There are stops in Italy, Colorado, and D.C.

Jane (née Phillips) Lewis, who grew up on a farm in Central Canada, develops a strikingly individualistic identity. As the story moves on to the 1990s we meet Jim Harsh, rebuilder of VWs; Joe's ex-wives MacKenzie and Jyll; and musicians Messalina, Papa John Brophy, Lulu White, Boo Shook, Bear, Buffie Pee, and The Feather Merchant.